House Ebonmaw

What we build will outlast us all. We pour everything into our craft, and it will stay forever, even if our mortal coils do not. We live on in our construction.

Perhaps the most ancient and yet forgotten of the Fallen Houses, House Ebonmaw were the builders of the Goliath race. They were the ones who built the impenetrable iron and stone fortress cities, built to last for eternity, even if the people do not. They built cities and forts to outlast the test of time, but failed to keep themselves alive in the process.

House Ebonmaw Origins

House Ebonmaw is the oldest of all the Noble Houses, springing into existence when Goliaths were still roaming around as nomadic tribes. In fact, based on runic carvings and ancient texts found by scholars looking through archaic libraries, House Ebonmaw was the first Noble House to exist. They built the foundation, metaphorically, that all other tribes would become, not yet for hundreds of years.

What made this house a Noble House at the time was that they were the only true organized tribe, or family. Since every other Goliath was still in their phase of nomadic tribes, these Goliaths were able to roam and reign freely over the lands. Scholars consider them the first house, but this house never decreed any rules or laws. However, they did claim land to be theirs officially, where House Drathos currently resides over close to the years of the Bloody Seven.

The Goliaths of this house came into a time where ruins were scattered across Jotunrath from an unknown civilization. These Goliaths revered whoever created these mostly untouched abandoned cities. Even though they were mostly ruins, it was the foundations and the walls of these ancient cities that remained. The Goliaths of House Ebonmaw scoured through these ruins and found old text, that they could read, that were instructions on how to build these impenetrable cities. So, with the limitless resources that this house had at their disposal, they began to build these marvelous and impenetrable fortress-cities. Taking inspiration from the fortitude and sturdiness of the Orcs, and the beauty of the Elves, the Goliaths of this house created the great cities that stretch across Jotunrath to this day. Those cities have never fallen and never saw a single crack in them. If the Goliaths had a kingdom at the time, they could have been seen as a world power with their indestructible walls and cities to defend from. This very architecture could have put them above the rest of the world, but since the rest of Jotunrath was a wasteland of snow and ice with nomadic tribes still in existence, these creations were squandered, unused.

The Goliaths of House Ebonmaw were obsessed with these ancient texts that they found within their homeland. Some ancient empire existed before they did, in these lands. Becoming more and more dangerously obsessed, House Ebonmaw continued to make these cities, thinking that this empire would return, and want to rule over their subjects.

House Ebonmaw was small at the time, but employed tribal Goliaths into their fold and working party to construct these marvels.