The Mostali War

[Martin]

Does anyone know anything about the Mostali War during the God's War?  Did Orlanth defeat the Dwarves? if so how?  Or did the Mostali win?

[metcalph]

13 minutes ago, Martin said:

Does anyone know anything about the Mostali War during the God's War?  Did Orlanth defeat the Dwarves? if so how?  Or did the Mostali win?

The Vingkotlings freed the human slaves in Ralios.  One or more Dwarf conclaves may have been destroyed.  They weren't able to defeat the main stronghold due to the Storm suppressing action of Mount Nida.  

[Martin]

So for third age orlanthi people, the dwarves are condiered enemies? or beings to be avoided?

How did the Orlanthi people go from fighting the mostali to gaining their aid in building cities and roads?

 is there a myth of how Orlanth befriended or placated the  dwarves? or did humans have to do something to make up for what they had done ?

[metcalph]

38 minutes ago, Martin said:

So for third age orlanthi people, the dwarves are condiered enemies? or beings to be avoided?

Strangers.  We fought against them in the past but now they sell us Iron Weapons so they seem to be okay.  Their sales pitch need a bit of work though - they think we want to kill everybody else in the whole world

38 minutes ago, Martin said:

 is there a myth of how Orlanth befriended or placated the  dwarves? or did humans have to do something to make up for what they had done ?

Humans are still the same untrustworthy apes that they were in the Storm Age.  What has changed between then and now is that Dwarves now have a better idea of how to make humans work for them.  

[Joerg]

Umath's birth effectively caused the demise of Mostal, the World Machine. With the Sky Dome lifted off its pivot, the rotations continued, but the axis was unstable.

It isn't clear whether the four pillars of the cardinal directions were erected as a first repair project to stabilize the sky dome. If so, Umath added insult to injury when he crashed into the White Pillar of the North, never mind that it was a judo move of Shargash/Jagrekriand which landed him there. (Or possibly Alkor, but that's a different topic.)

For most of Orlanth's kingship, there was no direct confrontation between the Storm Tribe and the Rock Tribe that we know of. Storm beating back the Flood may even have earned him some brownie points.

During the Lesser and Greater Darkness, the Vingkotlings fought just about everybody and their beasts, not always as the aggressor as resources dwindled and their relative wealth was coveted, and relevant to this question they fought the "rock people" with their rock and metal animals (according to Anaxial's Roster), and they fought the Enchanter of the Greatwood, who might have been a Mostali. Possibly using a calling magic to get meat for the food processors?

The Chaos Age and the Silver Age saw cooperation between the Heortlings and the Mostali (and all other Unity Council species) in Kerofinela, so at least the Greatway dwarves were fairly positively neutral towards the Heortlings. The rise of the Bright Empire would change that, as the Heortlings withdrew from the project while the Mostali remained a driving force of it.

The conflict between Martaler and the Only Old One in the early second century did not really affect the Heortlings, except maybe as an option to serve as mercenaries for the OOO.

During the EWF, Isidilian, the Dwarf of Dwarf Mine (really a Quicksilver Mostali), and Flintnail were quite supportive of the Pavis project, fostering friendship.

The Machine Wars saw at first considerable material support for the Heortlings in their fight against the Flesh Machine, but at the time of victory the dwarves of Gemborg usurped the victors' prize and slew Renvald, the Great Living Hero of the Heortlings. That must have soured the relationship.

During the Dragonkill War, Isidilian offered shelter (and slavery) to some of the humans of his neighborhood - likely Heortlings, as the Aramites had found another way to avoid ejection from the Pass. Their descendants operate the Alchemical Transformer and form the Cannon Cult.

The Greatway dwarves stopped trading with the Heortlings when they failed to uphold their treaties after the Dragonkill. Being exterminated by dragons just isn't an acceptable excuse for that.

Isidilian or one of his subjects were also among those who welcomed Arim the Pauper in his re-settlement of Dragon Pass from the north. They apparently contributed to Shaker's Temple, too. Maybe also built Wintertop Fort.

For Sartar and young Saronil, Isidilian and his subjects were allies, until Saronil offended them by using his dwarf-taught architecture sorcery (well, technological knowledge) to erect a tower for the Boldhome temple to Orlanth. Afterwards, a personal feud ended with Saronil's death, while other treaties were still upheld.

7 hours ago, Martin said:

So for third age orlanthi people, the dwarves are condiered enemies? or beings to be avoided?

Sartarites have very mixed feelings, depending on how much they are partisans for Saronil and his new-fangled buildings. Tarshites apparently had no such negative experience, and might have made mostly positive experiences.

7 hours ago, Martin said:

How did the Orlanthi people go from fighting the mostali to gaining their aid in building cities and roads?

Isidilian approached the Orlanthi returning to Dragon Pass, and offered them his aid. Arim proved himself worthy, and received it. Sartar and his son Saronil did so, too. But then Saronil offended his dwarven teachers.

7 hours ago, Martin said:

 is there a myth of how Orlanth befriended or placated the  dwarves? or did humans have to do something to make up for what they had done ?

There is the Unity Battle/I Fought We Won mythical complex from the Chaos Age which is shared by former Vingkotlings and the Mostali of Greatway and environs and numerous other local folk, which apparently overwrote the Vingkotling-Mostali wars.

Returning the Seas after the Flood may have been of little practical consequence to the subterranean Mostali, but it was a step aligned with their repair plan for the World Machine. (I am fairly convinced that there are active Mostali colonies on the flanks of the rifts where the Earth Cube shattered after the destruction of the Spike, regardless of the Doom Currents raging through these gaps. This kind of water management is within acceptable parameters for the World machine enineers, and a temporary flooding of the land might even be useful for maintenance.)

I doubt there was any formal recognition of that, though.

The Osentalka project finally showed the Mostali how humans could be made useful. Heortlings less so, though, but nothing that couldn't be corrected by throwing other humans like the Talastaring and Sairdite Orlanthi at it.

[Sir_Godspeed]

The Guide also states, iirc, that Dwarves see the rising of the Red Moon as proof that their repairs are working, so that might put them at odds with Orlanth-worshippers, if they ever bring that up together. Not that they have to.

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

The Guide also states, iirc, that Dwarves see the rising of the Red Moon as proof that their repairs are working, so that might put them at odds with Orlanth-worshippers, if they ever bring that up together. Not that they have to.

The prophecy is about the red orbiter. When the sedentary nature of the Red Moon was pointed out to one mostali, he answered "It hasn't stopped moving yet." I interpret this as the expectation that it will go down again, too - and that sounds like a shared goal with Orlanth.