THE TAILLE-PIERRE FAMILY

Motto

“No Stone Can Resist Us.”

Legend has it that this family emerged shortly after the Bronze Age, at a time when the seven dwarven families were constantly fighting over mountains, valleys, and borders.

Their first ruler, Tifurge the Bold, was leading his army against a neighbouring kingdom when he found himself halted at the foot of a mountain. After carefully studying the terrain, his generals informed him that the passage was too narrow for the army to cross.

The king gazed at the rock face for a moment, placed one hand upon it, and simply declared: “If we cannot cross this mountain... then we shall go through it.” Those few words became far more than a military decision. They forever forged the spirit of the Taille-Pierre.

The chronicles credit them with possessing the largest kingdom of all the dwarven families. Yet this claim is misleading. Hemmed in between four other kingdoms, the Taille-Pierre have never harboured territorial ambitions. Their true kingdom extends wherever dwarves build. They live among every family. They work for every family. They are everywhere... and yet nowhere.

An old saying claims that a Taille-Pierre building never reveals its true size. When a traveller gazes upon a fortress, a workshop, or a quarry, they are actually seeing only a small part of the structure. The elders say that four-fifths of their cities lie sleeping beneath the mountains, hidden from sight. That is where their true kingdom lies. Beneath the stone.

The Taille-Pierre are probably the humblest family in the entire United Dwarven Confederation. Architects, surveyors, builders, and master quarrymen, they possess an almost mystical connection with stone. Where ordinary mortals see nothing more than a simple block of rock, they read millions of years of history. They distinguish the layers. They understand the faults. They already know what that stone will become before the first hammer blow is ever struck.

Whenever a new quarry is opened, the family's scholars walk silently across the site. They gather a tiny pinch of dust, bring it to their lips, and close their eyes. Young recruits swear that they speak to the stone. The elders simply reply: “We do not speak to it... we listen to it.” Then they point to the exact spot where the drillers must begin their work. And they are never wrong.

Every fortress that has withstood the centuries bears their signature. Every bridge spanning a seemingly bottomless chasm. Every aqueduct supplying a city. Every road carved into a mountainside. Every statue, every column, every marble palace. When a traveller admires a work of stone that time itself has failed to conquer, they are most likely looking upon the craftsmanship of a Taille-Pierre. To them, masonry is not merely a trade. It is an art.

But those who know how to build also know how to destroy. The Taille-Pierre are the most feared demolition experts in the entire dwarven army. Where others see an impenetrable wall, they can already identify the fracture that will bring it crashing down. They know how to build a fortress destined to endure for a thousand years. They also know how to bring it down in a single blast.

Their expertise extends far beyond stonework. The finest gemcutters in the Confederation belong to this family. They too wander through the galleries of the mines, place their hands against the rough stone, and seem to listen to what the mountain is trying to reveal. They discover the richest veins of precious gemstones, which they then cut with unrivalled precision. Their creations adorn the crowns of sovereigns, the sceptres of kings, and the jewellery of the greatest dwarven houses. They also trade with humans. As for the Elves... the Taille-Pierre occasionally accept their commissions, but only because they know how to recognise a true masterpiece when they see one.

For thousands of years, the Taille-Pierre family has maintained a brotherly bond with the Foyer Ardent house. One discovers the gemstones. The other brings them to life. The Taille-Pierre extract precious metals from the depths of the world. The Foyer Ardent smelt them, work them, and transform them into weapons, coins, crowns, or jewels. Neither family could achieve excellence without the other. Over the centuries, this cooperation has grown into a true brotherhood. If either family is threatened, the other answers the call without the slightest hesitation.

For some alliances are not written on parchment.

They are carved in stone.