3rd: The Age of Bronze

By the dawn of the Third Age, the ice had begun to recede from the tops of the Surround. In ages past, the dale was ringed about by Tablelands capped with snow, but at the Dawn of the Age of Bronze, snow could be seen no longer. Its meltwater still flowed into Summervale but ice no longer calved and fell to the valley floor and the number of waterfalls was diminished. Still the water that came was pure and clean and fit for people and crops alike.

With the reduction in river systems many people had ceased their former lifestyles and settled into places fit for them. Specifically, the Lod and Stoneborn and Vyrum had given up their lives of hunting and gathering. After the age between ages had passed, they had already begun to live as the Hoflin did, in settled places and dependent on growing things for survival.

During this Age of Bronze, it was the Lod who were to be ascendant. For when they had become anchored in place, raising small settlements and permanent habitations along the rivers and lakes, they turned their resources toward invention. Among the races, they had developed great skill at knapping tools from stone, but they excelled even more so in the use of fire and the crofting of things with it.

The Lod used copper extensively, which eventually gave way to bronze and brass. Cooking implements, decorations, and sewing needles, became lighter, stronger and less fragile than that of the previous age. Spear tips grew finer and allowed for easier fishing, hunting and killing. The bow was invented at this time. The Lod were a small people and incapable of hurling the spear, but the bow became a great equalizer in warfare. But most important, was the use of the Lodstone, which enabled them to discover iron, and detect it and allowed them to set about learning its secrets.

So the Surround proved invaluable and not only for keeping back the fury of the Seas, but for the resources hidden in it. Iron and copper, it held in abundance. Long scars began to be cut upon its face and deep shafts sunk into its surface. These great works required effort and patience beyond what the Lod were suited. So they traded tools for labor with the Stoneborn who were already experienced. They had begun with digging redoubts for use against the Urkine and had discovered that they were well-suited to tunneling. The Lod also traded tools for crops with the agricultural powerhouse that the Hoflin had become, for despite the fact that the other races had become anchored in place, none could match their productivity.

Now the Vyrum were known as brewers and vintners. But they were also great craftsmen of ornaments and makers of pigments. Alone among the people they painted their faces and wore masks to war. These paints and powders, along with the wine they made, they traded to obtain the ingenuity of the Lod and their tools. The Lod meanwhile used the powders of the Vyrum to mix with copper in the making of bronze and brass. Bronze and brass were used to contain fires to produce heat, cook meals and purify metals.

During this age, only Men and Teraniel remained apart. For alone among the races, they were still wanderers. The Men were nomads who followed the great beasts across the fertile floor of Summervale, and the Teraniel were a warrior race, ever hunting, ever gathering. They had been cut off from their sires, the Avariel, and sought to be reunited with them, more than to develop comity with the other races. They alone were also relentless pursuers of the Urkine, who were greatly diminished but continued to live in small groups as raiders and reivers upon the other races.

In time, however, the Lod grew more wealthy and more powerful than any other people. The Rayn of Summervale was theirs, but they also became its first taskmasters. In times of plenty all prospered, but in times of dearth only the Lod were able to thrive, and so many of the other races became servants of the Lod in order to maintain their trade and wealth. Some of the Vyrum followed the practice of the Urkine and began raiding and reaving in Summervale. Many of the Hoflin were captured and sold to the Lod, who kept that race in thrall.

The Age of Bronze was ended by the coming of the Cataclysm. From time to time great shaking was felt across the floor of the dale and occasionally the Stoneborn were driven from their tunnels and forced to begin anew. These portents were probably ignored for the most part, for at first few changes would be seen by any of the people. But when bands of the wandering Teraniel returned to trade with the settled people and likely told of saltwater breaking through the Surround and poisoning distant eastern rivers. The Stoneborn needed little encouragement.

Alone among the settled races, the Stoneborn believed the Cataclysm was coming. Some say it was their knowledge of the rock of the Surround, others claim that they had discovered the seas themselves in their great tunneling and walled off those encroachments. Regardless of the reason, they began the carving of a vast egress, the Stairway, to get to the top of the Surround. Each year they took it upon themselves to move their People higher and higher into ever rising mines made in stone on the face of the Surround. So that every generation found them climbing higher and higher toward the Tablelands where the ice once sat. Some few of the Teraniel and gave up their lives of wandering to assist the Stoneborn. Some few of the Lod and their slaves also followed this migration, discovering what they might of metals and developing what they could in the way of drills and hammers and forges.

But most remained in Summervale, heedless of the warnings they were given. For the bulk of the Urkine had truly fled -- many bloodying themselves by climbing the Surround to escape their hunters. The green land below was still rich and fertile, and yielded itself before the plow for many seasons without number. And the Lod had the Rayn over all with their tools and craft.

But the end came at last. With a great shaking that was felt from one end of the dale to the other, the eastern portion of the Surround gave way. Great sections of the wall were thrown down and giant boulders crashed to the floor. That which had begun with a trickle in a thousand holes left by miners, ended it a roaring rush. A new wall, this one of water, poured over and through the Surround pushing down all that remained of it and scouring the green places clean. Hundreds of feet high it came, destroying everything and every people before it.

When the waters reached the west end of the Surround they rebounded and swept up over the surface, flooding the Stairway that had been built by the Stoneborn and wiping from history those who had not followed them. Thus Summervale was lost in perpetuity. A vast inner sea sat in its stead. Only those who had made it to the top of the Surround survived to bring forth another Age between ages.