The Sundering of Ironpeak

Prologue

Ironpeak Mountain trembles. For a thousand years, it has stood as the sacred center of the realm, a monument to the Concord of Crowns—the ancient pact that united dwarves, elves, orcs, humans, and fairy folk in an age of relative peace. But that pact has crumbled with time, worn down by centuries of minor slights, broken promises, and old blood feuds. Now the mountain itself is dying, great fissures splitting its ancient stone, and with each tremor comes a terrible awakening. Deep beneath Ironpeak stirs the Rift Worm—a primordial entity of entropy and discord, imprisoned since time immemorial. Its stirring is no accident. Scholars and spies whisper that the Crimson Order, a faction of human knights drunk on visions of supremacy, deliberately triggered the mountain's collapse to unleash chaos and seize power in the ensuing war. But their plan has backfired. The Rift Worm does not serve masters; it only feeds on conflict. And as it wakes, the fragile threads holding the realm together snap one by one. The Concord Seekers—a desperate alliance of diplomats, warriors, and idealists from all races—have identified a desperate solution: four Keystones of Harmony, each held by one of the great civilizations, each guarded jealously behind centuries of mistrust. If all four can be recovered and the races bound together once more in a ritual at Ironpeak's heart, the Rift Worm can be sealed away and the mountain stabilized. But the Crimson Order hunts anyone who seeks peace. The Rift Worm's own cultists work to sabotage every accord. And the Council of Elders—the keepers of the Keystones—will not yield their treasures to races they have learned to hate. The realm stands at a precipice. War looms. The mountain cracks wider each day. And somewhere in the chaos, a single choice—a single act of courage, diplomacy, or sacrifice—might yet tip the scales toward salvation... or doom.