Giantkin
A stocky gray folk of the Ash with bone plates on their skulls and shoulders and blue fire in their eyes. They call the giants their Giants: the giants burned down, and the blue fire is what is left of their souls. The Giantkin keep that fire, roll warm felt from the down of ember mice, guard the bones from the gnawers and say that warmth is given, never taken.
«A warmling! Stand still, let me look... Warm hands, soft skin, and not one bone on the head. I am …. Stay near us: in the Ash the warm ones cool quickly.»
The settlement and its dwellers
Crafts
Trades by level
Looks
Where they live
Bonefold Camp. A camp of the Giantkin: felt yurts under ribs that fell from the Giants of their own accord, homes in a skull and a vertebra, a skull of an ancestor on a pole by every family door and a blue fire in every hearth. In the middle burns the kin fire under four ribs that do not meet, and the elder lives in a Giant's skull whose eyes still burn. Past the last yurt the path ends at a Bone Gate for those who leave.
Tasks
Bring the Strays Home· Soulfire Keeper· repeatableKnock the embers out of three strays — Ash Wraiths, the hooded fires of the Ash — and bring two soul embers to the soulfire keeper.
«The strays are pieces of a Giant's fire that wandered off and got lost in the dark. They are not wicked, warmling. They are lonely. Knock the ember out of three of them and bring two embers to me: the kin fire will take them home. I will pay in what we have: cinder that the fire lives on, and your green stones.»
Fire for the Road· Soulfire KeeperCarry a lantern lit from the kin fire to a caravan guide: no caravan leaves the camp without it.
«A caravan goes out to the next camp soon, and no caravan leaves without fire from our kin fire: the beacon carries it ahead, so the strays know the caravan is kin. I cannot leave the fire. Carry this lantern to a guide, warmling. Walk slowly. It does not like to be swung.»
Fangs for Chisels· Bone CarverDrive four bone gnawers off the fallen Giants for good and bring the bone carver two gnawer fangs.
«The gnawers are at the fallen Giant past the cinder field again, cracking him for the marrow. We drive them off with fire on poles, but they come back, and every time there is less of him. Thin them out, warmling: four. And bring me two of their fangs. A gnawer's fang is the best chisel in the Ash, and it is only fair that the thief's teeth should carve what he steals from.»
Marrow in the Burrow· Bone CarverFind a gnawer burrow and show the bone carver a piece of soul marrow taken back from the thieves.
«Where do the gnawers take the marrow they crack out? Down their burrows, under a chewed bone, into a den lit by cinder. Go down one, warmling, and take a piece of blue marrow back from them. Show it to me: I want to see how much they have stolen. Then keep it. You will need marrow for the plug under the great spine, and marrow taken from a thief is marrow nobody has to cut from a Giant.»
Wool from Above· Felt Maker· repeatableBring the felt maker twelve blocks of white wool: your world's wool makes the felt warmer.
«The wool of your world is softer than mouse down, warmling, and it still has a warmth of its own in it: the warmth of whatever wore it. Mixed into our felt, it makes a layer that holds through a soul wind. And every child in the camp needs a new layer each long turn of the fire. Bring me twelve now and then, and I will pay.»
Felt Makers Under Another Vent· Felt MakerCarry eight blocks of soul cinder from the felt maker of the Ash to a felt maker of the Fruiting Folk in the Mycelium.
«The bell-folk say that under another vent there is a folk who beat felt out of old threads, and that their felt is the best thing in the worlds for swallowing a cry. But felt burns by your bells' fire, they say. Ours does not, because we roll soul cinder into it: cinder that never warms never catches. Take them eight pieces, warmling, from one felt maker to another. Tell them how much to roll in.»
The Sledges That Would Not Sit· Caravan GuideFind the Frozen Caravan of the strangers and bring the caravan guide four soul briquettes from its stores.
«Three sledges stand frozen in the ash, chained one behind the other. Strangers. They carried fuel enough and lit their own fire at every stop, and it never warmed them, because they would not sit at ours. Their stores are still full. Bring me four of their fuel bricks, warmling. We will put them on our kin fire, given. Let their fuel warm somebody at last.»
Ring After Them· Caravan GuideLive through the Ghost Caravan and bring the caravan guide three bones from the cache it leaves behind.
«The strangers still walk sometimes: a file of pale lights, a bell on the lead sledge, cold coming off them like smoke. Where they lie down, their cache rises out of the ash, and their bones with it. Nobody ever walked them to the Bone Gate. Next time they pass, warmling, walk beside them, not among them, and bring me three of their bones from the cache. We will walk them to the Gate ourselves, like kin. Then perhaps they can stop walking.»
Is Grief Colder?· Caravan GuideBring the caravan guide two pieces of sorrow quartz, tears of the Lament set into crystal, from where the glass weeps.
«The guides say grief is colder than the Ash. I have said it myself, to warmlings going further down. But I have never been to the weeping glass, and a guide should not speak of a road he has not walked. You have walked it, warmling: you came back up from the Lament. Bring me two of their tears that have set into crystal. I want to hold them and know if it is true.»
What Falls Out of a Giant· Ash SifterFind the Giant's Skull and bring the ash sifter sixteen blocks of soul ash from around it.
«A Giant's skull lies out on its back, looking up into the Chimney, and one socket still burns. The ash that has drifted into it has been sitting by his thoughts for longer than any of us has lived. I want to sift it: who knows what falls out of a Giant's head? Bring me sixteen handfuls from around the skull, warmling. And put your ear to the bone while you are there.»
Snatch It from the Fire· Ash SifterLive through the Pale Draw and bring the ash sifter three pieces of raw wraith iron snatched before the fire takes them.
«When the blue fires pull, the ash gives up what it has been keeping: bones, embers, crumbs of wraith iron that I would sift a whole stoking to find. And all of it creeps to the flame and burns away. Such a waste, warmling. Next time the fires pull, stand where the pull is weak and snatch what you can: three pieces of iron. Do not let the fire have you as well.»
The Keepers' Names· ElderGo down into the Giant's Ossuary under the great spine, where the old keepers lived and died, and come back up.
«I keep the names of this camp, warmling: forty layers, and every one remembers someone. But there are names I do not have. The old keepers who dug under the great spine took fire-names and went down, and nobody felted them into any mantle: we were ashamed. They loved the Giants wrongly, but they loved them. Go down for me. Somewhere down there they wrote their names. Bring them back up in your head.»
Lay the Risen Down· ElderDefeat the Giant's Remnant on his bier at the bottom of the Giant's Ossuary.
«Now you know what lies on the bier. The keepers warmed him, and taken warmth does not warm: his fire drinks from everything alive. He is not our Giant any more, warmling. He is only hungry. His altar asks for two soul embers; carry them past the vertebra gate and wake him. Then lay him down again. We will weep and sing, both.»
The Soul Wind's Ring· ElderWake the ring of frames out in the ash: the gate between the worlds.
«The ring of frames sleeps out in the ash, and the soul wind blows through it. It opens only for one who has laid the Risen down and stood through a soul wind under the open Chimney. Then it wants his marrow, sixty-four deep embers, and wraith iron and our soul marrow for its frames. Give it everything, warmling. Every road needs someone to walk it.»
Stone That Holds Heat· Palm KeeperBring the palm keeper six pieces of ringwoodite from the rocks of the Depths.
«Warmth to you, warmling. The Palm is bone, and bone forgets heat. The blue stone of the deep remembers it. Six pieces under the hearth, and the fire will last till the next laying.»
The Ones Who Grow· Palm KeeperFly to the Wandering Cap, the station of the Fruiting Folk by the vent of the Mycelium, and come back.
«Something grows out there, where nothing should. We burn down; they grow up. Go and see whether they are cold. If they are, tell us. We will send felt.»
What Must Stay Warm· Palm KeeperBring the palm keeper three pieces of soul marrow from the Ash for the Marrow Chamber.
«Under the fire, in the lower bone, lies what the Giant kept warmest. It takes marrow from home to keep it so. Three. Bring them, then go down, once, and take what was left there. I swear it by the bone.»
What to talk about
Tell me about the Ash.
The Ash is the bottom of the world's hearth. Once the Giants burned here, and it was warm everywhere. Now there is soul ash to the edge of sight, the Giants lying where they fell, and blue fire that gives no warmth. We live between the bones and keep what is left.
What is the dark hole in the sky?
The Chimney. The Giants were the hearth, and that is its flue: all the warmth went up through it long ago, to where you came from. You came down it in your bell, on a chain. Sometimes warm air still sinks back down from it, and then the mice come out and we take off three layers.
Why is it so cold here?
Because the fire here is itself cold. A Giant's fire has lost its body; it reaches for warmth the way we reach for fire. Stand by it, and it drinks from you. Felt, a smoldering tuber in the belly, a friend's back against yours — that is how one keeps warm in the Ash. The heater in your suit helps too, I hear.
What falls from the sky here?
Ash snow: the Giants shaking out their pipes, and it is colder while it falls. Bone dust: the wind grinding the fallen ones into flour; the Ash goes white, you cannot see the next rib, and the guides ring their bells so that nobody walks off. And sometimes the warm haze comes down the Chimney. That is the best: the ember mice run out of their burrows, and the children chase them.
Who else lives in the Ash?
The ember mice, warm and kind. The gnawers, who crack the Giants for their marrow. And the strays — pieces of fire in hoods of ash. Respect the mice, chase the gnawers, and never turn your back on a stray.
Tell me about the gnawers.
Thieves of marrow. They wear other creatures' bones grown into their hides, and they crack the fallen Giants for the blue marrow — that is why their jaws glow. A fed gnawer leaves you be; strike one, and the whole pack answers. We drive them off the bones with fire on poles. Their fangs make the best chisels: the carvers will buy every one you bring.
And the little ones with fire on their tails?
Ember mice! The only warm thing in the Ash that is not a warmling. They sleep in heaps under the ribs, warming one another, the way we sleep. They leave their down at the mouths of their burrows, and we roll our felt from it. Do not hurt them. Well — if you already have, the felt maker will still take the down.
What is worth seeing in the Ash?
Everything here is either a Giant, or something we built for the Giants, or something strangers left behind. Ask about any of it.
I saw a skull as big as a hill.
A Giant's skull. They are rare: whatever took the Giants took their heads first. It lies on the back of its head and looks up into the Chimney, and one eye socket still burns. We go there to listen. Put your ear to the bone, and you will hear him thinking — slowly, about warm things.
And the ring of benches around a blue fire?
The Soul Pyre. The keepers bring it the embers we win back from the strays, and the fire takes them home. The skulls on the benches are ours: kin who sat with the fire so that it would not be lonely, and sat too long. Nobody has ever got warm by it. That is not what it is for.
Who built the gate that leads nowhere?
We did. It is a gate for those who leave. When one of us goes cold, the family walks them to the Bone Gate, and they go through. The road stops four steps past it, because the rest of the road is only for the dead. The lanterns are lit for whoever is going.
What is the field of glowing stumps?
A cinder field. Something grew there and burned, and the coals never cooled and never warmed. We gather soul cinder there for our hearths: a Giant's fire lives long on it. The skulls at the roots belong to warmlings who took the glow for a fire and sat down to warm their hands.
And the well with the bone windlass?
The old keepers dug those, looking for warmth under the ash. They found a bottom with no bottom. We pour the ash of our hearths into it, so it can fall back down to wherever fire comes from. Do not lean over the hole: the blue fire around it is lit so the careless can see where not to step.
What lies under the long mounds?
Not ours. The barrows are older than the oldest layer on any mantle. Those who lie there wore wraith iron — iron the Giants' cold has got into — and they get up when someone comes close. We do not dig there. The sifters find crumbs of that iron in the ash, and that is near enough for us.
Names
Ghorm · Uddo · Bahra · Toldu · Harduk · Moruun · Ebbe · Kuldra · Gummar · Assa · Oskuul · Dagma