City Of Steam

[Ragnarocks]

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City of Steam Beta Test

Though aptly named at the time of its coining, a steady stream of archaeological discoveries and scientific advancements make the Forgotten Age less forgotten by the day. While there is consensus that it ended with the rise of the Paragons and the beginning of traditionally recorded history, when the Forgotten Age began � and how, when, and why the Mechanism came into existence � is a question of lively and fanciful debate.



Written documents from the Forgotten Age are rare, and seldom if ever refer to the Mechanism as a whole. The majority of surviving fragments of parchment and stone inscriptions come from the late Forgotten Age, and describe a group of intermittently warring feudal kingdoms scattered throughout the Heartlands. Contact between these kingdoms and greenskin settlements in the crownlands and borderlands appears to have been rare. Portrayals of greenskins by human cultures and of humans by greenskin cultures are thus extraordinarily exaggerated.



Some especially memorable tapestries show steel-tusked orcs towering over trees, goblins passing through stone, and four-armed hobgoblins with crooked scimitars menacing human kingdoms. A recently excavated goblin painting shows humans as creatures of mirrored glass walking on flaming talons. None of these fanciful portrayals appear with any consistency, though.



One stark image survives the Forgotten Age, transcending culture and geography: the featureless face of the star-crowned Grey Man. Saturation aetherometry confirms that the century or so where this motif became common was suffused by a peculiar energy, something like but not identical to the myth radiation found in contemporary Paragon ruins.



The particulars of the Grey Man�s story vary from site to site and culture to culture, though his power is always represented by a bright light on his forehead. Some portray him as a benevolent (even venerated) philosopher-king who leads his people into a golden age. Others show him as a mad, debased conqueror of inhuman strength and charisma, the enemy of civilization rather than its father. Still others ascribe even darker deeds to the figure; one controversial discovery in Ostenia shows a grey alabaster face looking out over a sea of bones.



The conclusions to the Grey Man�s story are as varied as his characterizations. The philosopher-king gives up his bright crown and wanders the world forever as a commoner. The conqueror is deposed in a bloody revolution and executed in full view of the rejoicing public. The demon proves immune to mortal weapons, so the victorious rebels bind him in chains and bury him deep underground. The god ascends to a higher plane, awaiting an age in need of his eternal wisdom. Historians that have attempted to assemble these depictions into a consistent narrative inevitably fail, but the exercise is never less than intriguing.



Whatever the Grey Man�s significance, new portrayals drop off suddenly some two centuries before the estimated rise of the Paragons. Why this occurred is anyone�s guess.