Five of them.
Spread across the city, each marked upon a workshop larger than the rest.
Not grand—but unmistakable.
They do not draw attention.
And yet, everything seems to move around them.
I asked.
The caravan leader answered without hesitation, as if the knowledge was expected.
They are called The Vein Lords.
Five individuals.
Each a master of a different craft.
Weapon. Armor. Tools. Refinement. Alloy.
Power here is not inherited.
Nor is it permanent.
Every twenty years, they compete.
Even those who already hold the title must stand again—
and prove that their hands have not grown dull.
It is… a simple system.
No ceremony. No spectacle.
Just results.
People speak of them with respect.
But not reverence.
Not like rulers.
Not like heroes.
More like… constants.
Something that exists because it works.
—
The guild is easier to understand.
Bloodforge.
They are not closed.
Anyone may enter—
if someone is willing to teach them.
I have seen apprentices standing beside masters,
their hands uncertain, their eyes sharp.
No one rushes them.
But no one carries them either.
Progress here feels… earned.
Measured quietly, not announced.
—
The caravanners are not outsiders.
Not really.
They come and go, yes—
but the city bends slightly to accommodate their return.
Familiar faces. Repeated exchanges.
Trust, built over movement rather than time.
They bring what this place cannot produce.
And in return—
they leave carrying something forged, not grown.
—
The others remain.
Those born here.
They do not shape metal.
But they shape everything around it.
Inns. Food. Trade.
And beneath it all—
the mines.
Sanguine ore.
I have heard the name more than once now.
It stains the ground.
Feeds the forge.
Defines the city.
There are families who have done nothing else for generations
but dig it from the earth.
They are spoken of with a different kind of respect.
Quieter.
Heavier.
—
This place does not separate people by walls.
Only by what their hands have learned to do.
And for the first time since leaving Dunskar—
I cannot immediately tell who stands above whom.
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