On the 22nd of Scarlatan 924 AF, Sir Eril Rian bore the weight of living mithril as the first Avatar of the Forge.

With the blessing of his Father, the devoted Phaestean travelled north to Inbhir Ness where a humble spark of the Worldforge still burned. Kneeling before the mithril brazier, the Smith's Avatar cupped his hands and pressed the flame against his heart. The sacred fire engulfed Eril, igniting him like fervent coal aflame with devotion. However, he did not burn.

In a breath, the Avatar of the Forge vanished, leaving naught but the lingering resonance of a hammer against an anvil in his wake.

From the Temple of Phaestus emerged a billowing plume of smoke, ethereal and otherworldly, paler than freshly fallen snow, a stark contrast to the fiery trial it concealed. Steadfast and unwavering, Eril stood within the conflagrant nova of the Worldforge. The sweltering temperature rose around him, blazing hot enough to render Divine ore molten in mere moments. But, for one clad in the living-mithril flesh of the Smith's Avatar, the forge fire of Brillach was no foe.

Metal skin turned red-hot, crackling and hissing as the essence-infused Phaestean reached out into the conflagrant heat of the aeons-old star, and took an ember into his palm. With a low grunt of exertion, he pulled his arm back and cast the fire across Sapience, shrouding the heavens beneath a blaze of sidereal flame and pale smoke.

And then, a clang of hammer against metal rang out from the dwarves of Inbhir Ness alongside a triumphant cry. Beneath the Mhojave, a deluge of heat-laden clouds and smoke emerged into the desert, heralding the ignition of the Moghedan forges once more. Even Riparium's sunken smithy, beneath the embrace of watery depths, reignited as hot bubbles and striking tools resonated through the ocean.

The forges blazed again, and the work of the Phaesteans was complete.

Tossed out from the depths of the Worldforge, the metallic Avatar flew over mountains, cities, and forests. Still-warm hammerscale fell from his metal form as he rapidly cooled in the air, before he at last made cataclysmic impact with the Dardanic Grasslands, quaking the continent in a titanic impact that churned soil, burnt grass, and sundered the earth.

Even then, the Avatar of the Forge still stood, his living-mithril flesh merely scratched.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: The order of Phaestus raised Eril as the first Avatar of the Forge. Travelling into the heated depths of the Worldforge, the efforts of the Smith's Chosen saw the forges of Sapience ignited once again.

Penned by My hand on the 12th of Valnuary, in the year 924 AF.