Runestone ashlands

Runestones and signs

Know, child unborn, that this was once the greatest kingdom in all Valheim. Here lived the Sons and Daughters of the King of the Emerald Flame. Beneath his wing, we knew strength and security. In his sight, we grew like green shoots. Now we set this stone among rubble and turn our backs on the land of our birth. May future ages take warning from us.

In the forests of the far North, our scouts came across a sleeping boy, sitting naked in the deep snow with his back to a tree. They wrapped him in furs and brought him back to the king, asleep all the while with only his eyelids moving. We named him the Winter Child and we took him to be a good omen. May the gods have mercy on fools.

It was known throughout the land that the two would often sit together as if in talk, the king coiled about the sleeping child with his face close, straining to catch any murmured words. Nobody knew what passed between them but all saw the change in the king. Justice flared into wrath and caution deepened into fear. Laws were passed that must be broken and each time the lawbreakers were punished more harshly. Tyranny came in a spiral, like a great storm.

When the King of the Emerald Flame flew away to visit the wizard king of the Fulings, his own thegns rose against him and torched the palace with the Winter Child inside. All of us who were alive at that time heard the shriek that sounded for the nine days of the fire and echoed in the city's streets for many weeks longer. Those were the last good days any of us knew, before the return of our king.

When the king saw the charred remains of his great hall, he swore to show his foes a fire far greater than the little spark they had kindled. With his breath, he razed our city to the ground and then brought war to all the land. Some of the people stayed faithful to the king but many sought to quench his fury. Brothers fought against brothers, sisters against sisters. The Kingdom of the Emerald Flame tore itself apart. Now only these charred ruins remain, within which not even the dead can find rest.

The stones tell of a great tragedy in this land, many centuries ago. It is hard to believe the creature who stalks this ruined city was once a noble beast and a wise king. Yet we will not stay our hands on this account. When we kill him, we will count it a mercy.