This will be absurdly noncanon I know. But I wanted to write out this particular perspective never the less.
Confession
To King Belegar Ironhammer of Vala Azril Ungol
May this letter find you in better tidings than mine own, for if you receive this letter it means I am dead. A contingency I chose to enact prior to our battles at Sliverpeak, for though our force is mighty there are no guarantees in war as you would well know.
And in truth, I intend not to survive. Though my station as High King denies the formal possibility, I consider myself to be under slayer oath for my actions. I do this, even if the glory of honourable Slayer's death - as dictated for the need of honourable entry to the halls of our ancestors - is impossible for me.
My honour is already gone and cannot be salvaged. So what matters a few more black marks dirtying it, if doing so may serve the Realm and the next High King? For there are truths that each High King is sworn to not reveal, and yet in recent years I have come to the conclusion that these truths must be shared among select few individuals to best serve the future, unity, and cohesion of the Karaz Ankor.
Some of the contents of this letter may already be known to you or they may not, and regardless of it, the words written here give you irrefutable evidence that could be used to bring considerable internal strife to the whole of the realm.
With this, kindly consider that fact that I dare write this letter in itself a considerable voice of trust in your own honour, and trust in your character to burn this letter after reading it or storing it safely and securely beyond all misuse. Consider the secrets held within, and please use them sparingly, but as you see best to serve the future of the Dawi.
Frankly, I trust your judgement more than I trust mine own.
As you may have gathered, this is a letter of apology and my confession. By the time you reach the end, you shall not thank me.
My confession of lost hope and of how close Dawi-kind became to utter destruction. How could this be? It is well known that so long as the Rune of Azamar endures, the Karaz Ankor shall never fall.
The secret of High Kings. Rune of Azamar was not enduring.
During the Golden Age, the Elves of Ulthuan built the Waystone network to control and redirect the leylines of the Old Ones, pouring magic from across the world into Ulthuan to drain it into the Great Vortex. The Karaz Ankor joined them in this endeavour, and the High Magic of Ulthuan joined with the arts of Grungni and Thungni to increase the power of the Waystone network.
Our price for such work was that not all of these leylines lead to Ulthuan. The Throne of Power is a true marvel of construction, gathering and directing these energies. Primarily they power the great works of the Ancestors, most now lost to invading armies or to lack of maintenance... or lack of power. Among them, very nearly, the Great Runes of Valaya.
That insufferable alarm I lived with, of every hour of every day, listening to the impending doom-clock of our species counting down as the Throne screamed of emptying energy reserves to my ear, reserves needed to keep the The Great Runes of Valaya in operation and which were ever dwindling. Once they were powerless then the next Storm of Magic, regardless of intensity, would be our downfall as a civilization and a species.
Each lost Old hold had reduced the flow of power. Each new Young hold increasing the deficit.
From my first day, I always was the High King of an empire falling apart from its foundations, and no one could be allowed to know. Given that our death was inevitable within my own lifetime, I though we should make it the most honourable one possible. Empty the Book Of Grudges as far as we could, so that once we all enter the halls of our Ancestors we do so with what little honour is possible.
I became calculated. How many dwarf lives would be lost to strike which grudge? What was the best possible expenditure of those lives to maximize the severity of grudges struck? This was the state where I made all my choices, including the choice to not aid you against the incoming Waagh on the eve of your victory.
Until you won.
That day, when you first arrived to my halls with the completed crown on your head, words that I shall never forget were carved into the corner of my vision. Words I hadn't even known were possible.
Azrilbezaz in range. Synchronizing. Vala-Azril-Ungol online.
I know not for how long the alarm had been ringing for my predecessors. But for myself, for the first time in 180 years, for the first time since I first sat upon the Throne, there was silence. Flow of expected, needed, power was restored and the near empty reserves were beginning to slowly recover.
Then, almost immediately after, came the Dum Expedition.
My eyes were opened.
I saw what I had made of our empire. I saw a future for our species, and the resource the manlings could be in reaching for it. The rest is a matter of public record which you already are well acquainted with.
I present here my apology for how I, bereft of hope, treated you and your loyal subordinates during the retaking of Vala Azril Ungol and in the decades after, only to be proven so wrong on so many occasions.
I never hated or thought ill of you, for unknowingly you gave hope to one utterly lacking it.
I do not ask you to think kindly of me nor do I beg of your forgiveness, for I deserve neither. Even the Ancestors would be well served by turning their faces away from me in disgrace. If not for my past actions, then for the number of oaths I have broken in revealing all this to you and in writing no less.
But matters of my honour are not your concern, and you of all the Kings deserve a full and honest accounting.
Instead as my true last act as High King I charge you with the same burden I was charged with, and under which, I must confess, I broke: A terrible knowledge.
It will not be easy to live with it, I know.
But I hope that for a dwarf of your impeccable character and commitment to honour, the unvarnished truth will bring some level of closure in understanding what led to the tragedies of my own making and the no doubt frosty private thoughts you must have had of me.
This last part I do beg of you. Please, let not my actions taint your view of the next High King. Continue to serve the realm as best of your ability. And above all,
Live well.
In the name of Grugni,
High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer.
