The Tables of the Histories of the Stoneborn of Dynkyr - Table XVII

In the days when Thorlin ruled Dynkyr alone, there was plenty and quiet within the Bastions.

The Primum of the Alds had been set aside, and in his place the power and glory of the Vyrum rested in the Senex, one hundred in number, who held sway across the face of Erenth. Their dominion they named the Republic, and it spread throughout the Four Lands bringing order and prosperity. The Cavaliers of the Vyrum were counted guardians of peace and justice, and few evils could withstand them.

Under the Senex, gold and silver once more flowed to the mints of Dynkyr. The Stoneborn were invited to strike coigns anew, and the sound of hammer upon die was heard again in the lower halls. What had once been a memory of wealth became present coin.

The Vyrum also sought our counsel in the laying and carving of stone. At Ald Ciula they had raised a great center of learning, and not a few of the Grandmaster masons and smiths of Dynkyr now sojourned there. Now their names were recorded with honor beyond the Deepwards. In those years the craft of the Stoneborn was esteemed in lands where once we had been regarded only as recluses of the mountain.

There was talk among some that the Deepwards might be abandoned and that the Stoneborn could once again dwell upon the surface as did other nations. Yet such voices were few. For Dynkyr had grown fair beyond measure. The sun-wells poured golden light into the depths, and the draftways carried air as cool and clean as any highland breeze. The Five Brothers were abundant. The halls rang not with alarm but with industry.

Few believed the world without to be greater than the world within.

The Deepwards had become at once museum and workshop, chronicle and cathedral. Every family could trace its lineage upon the stone, and the deeds of fathers were carved beside the names of sons. To walk the halls was to walk the memory of the Stoneborn themselves.

Thus prosperity returned, yet the mountain was not forsaken.

Thorlin was Regn for three and forty and two hundreds of years before he died, having ruled in years of peace and esteem. He was succeeded by Durek the Regn.