Vdali

The slumbering titan, embraced in glacial ice.

"His very breath shapes the mountains, his footfalls carve our valleys and his exile has brought us peace."

The largest of Ymir's children, Vdali is more akin to a force of nature. A living glacier that perpetuates in cycles of activity and hibernation. When he awakes the earth trembles and mountains shudder, his seemingly careless wanderings carve valleys and heightens hilltops. With centuries between each appearance the ice giant had many prophecies and portents written about his next awakening. Fortune tellers and soothsayers advanced their arts in order to predict and prepare for the next great rumbling as any settlement within Vdali's path was destined to be flattened and forgotten.

As civilizations advanced, reverence and fear were replaced with revile and fury. The budding empires refused to submit to the erratic will of the slumbering God began to rally together against him. The Primordial Enarr, Vdali's brother, in an act some describe as pity and others recount as calculated self-preservation, drove Vdali beneath the earth where his awakenings could no longer threaten the surface of Meranthe. Vdali sank, deep beneath the lands, his movements no longer a catastrophe but a distant rumble, a reminder of his strength.

Vdali has only awoken once since his banishment, causing the land to heave and buckle, but not break. It is said that each breath the titan takes causes ore to erupt within the caverns of the land. And that deep below, in the cavity's behind his passing, the stone is laden and burdened with the rarest gems and strongest metals. However none have yet dared to delve that deeply, fearing to wake the slumbering giant and remind him of the open skies he has been denied.

Geographical Scale

There is an ongoing debate about Vdali's morality. Many considered him to be cruel and unduly destructive, lacking both intelligence and care. Others argue that the primordial just doesn't experience things on the same perceptive scale as humanity, thoughts converging at tectonic speed with the brief periods of activity occurring when a decision is made. The truth is as of yet undiscovered, the titan's exile having made further examination of him nigh impossible. In the aftermath of his latest awakening, public opinion has been pushed towards the latter, that the primordial giant was merely misunderstood and out of his element.

There have been attempts at some kind of communication in the past. In an effort to keep Vdali at rest, a sect of priests were formed, The Restful Expanse, whose solemn duty was to ensure the primordial remained at rest, slumbering deep within a dream. Due to their efforts, some have reported seeing the inner thought process of the giant's mind. Syllables took hours to pronounce as the glacial speed of words lumbered across the miles of synapse. Those that communed with the slumbering giant for too long fell into this rhythm, with the world passing them by as they struggle to react in time.

The Risen Mountain

Over the years, Vdali has become active four times.

The first time, in the year 852, the most unexpected, was when the glacial ranges of what is now North-Eastern Vdalion rose upon two legs and strode 300,000 feet to the North East before settling down once more in an area only a few degrees colder than the starting point. Several giant settlements built upon the ridges were destroyed or displaced and the trough left behind by the giant's ambulation is still known as the wandering valley to this day.

It would be more than two centuries before the slumbering primordial awoke once more. The legends of the living landscape had prevented any from building too close to Vdali's resting site. Yet that did not mean they were safe from his activities. The giant's second rising involved him redirecting the course of several mountain rivers over the course of several days creating the still present Vdali river that flows from the mountaintops down south towards the shadowlands and out into the eastern sea. Hundreds of people were cut off from freshwater and acres of forest withered and died in the coming droughts. The primordial took a single drink from this new river before returning to his slumber.

Vdali slumbered for almost half a millennia before his next rising. In this interim the settlements of the Vdalion empire grew vast and powerful. A sect of priests, hailing supposedly from the Primordial's bloodline, were employed to keep the giant slumbering. Their efforts worked, for a time, extending the era of inactivity. However, with opposition rising to the empire's claimed lands the practice was neglected and the mountain rose once more. The earth rumbled as the titan began to excavate around him, collapsing caverns and creating sinkholes for miles around causing large swathes of established cities to fall into their own foundations. This bout of activity never truly concluded however, the people of Vdalion had begun to amass a force to assault the primordial and only through intervention from his brother Enarr was Vdali spared the fate of Deicide. Taking the magic of the priests, Enarr cast Vdali into a deep slumber and sent him far beneath the land, exiled from the surface where his irresponsible animations threatened the civilizations of Meranthe.

The fourth and latest of Vdali's animations occurred deep beneath the earth away from the eyes of all. Nobody knows exactly what happened in the foundations of the country but earthquakes had rocked the land as the snowy peaks of the mountains seemed to rise several more feet. Fresh ores littered previously depleted mineshafts and the soil of Vdalion seemed to become enriched with shards of life-bearing ice. With no damage beyond some shaken stone and with new boons being discovered in its wake, public opinion towards the restful Titan seems to have shifted more positively. With some decrying the previous image of the Titan as a staggering oaf, instead now depicting him as a once lost creature. Those who find themselves without purpose in life now pray towards the giant to help them discover their own true purpose.

The Lost Titan

What has become of the giant is unknown. Earth magic surveys have discovered vast new caverns deep below the continent, rich with precious materials but no sign of the giant himself has been found. Seismic activity seems to have increased in the later years though not on a scale that people would generally attribute to the movements of Vdali. There is speculation that the primordial has not returned to his slumber since the latest awakening and instead has burrowed deeper into the world, away from detection.

Any plans to explore these theories have been shunned at large. While people see the primordial more positively, nobody can deny his history. With the titan's disappearance a newfound sense of relief was offered to the people of Vdalion, no longer needing to fear the next awakening. In this rare opportunity of peace, anything that might risk the titan's return has been all but outlawed. The previous sect of priests devoted to extending his dream has been disbanded and all mining operations in the Vdalion region have been given a strict depth limits.