| Artifacts called spirit stones have existed for
as long as the Eldar can remember. The story about how they were created
is told in the Dance of Asuryan. One night the Goddess Lileath had a dream
in which she saw Khaine the War God torn to pieces by a mortal descendant
of Kurnous the god of the hunt and Isha the goddess of the harvest. Kurnous
and Isha had many children who included immortal gods as well as the very
first mortals the Eldar. When Lileath told Khaine about her dream he resolved
to destroy the mortal children of Kurnous and Isha, and pursued them through
the Heavenly Realm, trapping and slaying many before Asuryan the Phoenix
King heard the weeping of their mother Isha and carne to see what was happening.
When he discovered what Khaine had done, Asuryan banished the remaining
Eldar to the Mortal Lands and forbad all further contact between mortals
and gods.
Kurnous and Isha were dismayed at being parted from their offspring and asked their uncle Vaul the Smith god to help to reunite them. Vaul took the tears shed by Isha and turned them into spirit stones. By means of the stones an Eldar could talk to the gods, and in this way the Eldar and gods could communicate even though they could never meet. Although Vaul knew Asuryan had forbidden contact between mortals and gods he gave one of the stones to Isha and the remainder to her mortal children the Eldar. By means of the stones the Eldar talked to Isha. They learned how to use the stones to draw runes, and were shown how the energy of the stones could he combined with the runes to make skeletal frameworks for all kinds of structures and craft. Unfortunately, Khaine overheard Isha one day as she talked through her stone to the Eldar, and the War God immediately told Asuryan. Asuryan was so enraged that his order had been disobeyed that he gave Kurnous and Isha to Khaine to do with as he pleased. Vaul could not bare to see his brother and sister harmed by Khaine So he struck a bargain in return for their safety. Khaine agreed that if Vaul were to make him a thousand enchanted weapons by the same time the following year he would let Kurnous and Isha go free. Vaul worked hard all year, but at the end of the time the final weapon, a long sword, still lay unfinished on the anvil. To conceal the shortfall Vaul picked up an ordinary sword and mixed it into the others, and gave the weapons to Khaine who was too pleased to spot the deception. Vaul, Kurnous and Isha hurried away. As they made good their escape Khaine discovered the ordinary sword hidden among the weapons and roared with anger, calling Vaul a cheat and crying out for revenge. Following this episode the Dream of Asuryan tells how Khaine and Vaul fight each other, and how Vaul reforges the unfinished sword to use against his enemy. After a series of battles Vaul is finally caught by Khaine who cripples him and chains the Smith God to his own anvil. Vaul's Sword then passes into the hands of the mortal hero Eldanesh, who finally confronts Khaine and is torn apart and killed. Asuryan was so appalled by the murder of Eldanesh that he cursed Khaine and made his hands drip eternally with the blood of Eldanesh so that everyone would remember what he had done. The sword then passed through the hands of Eldanesh's descendants until it was finally lost in the Sea of Broken Tears by Inriam the Young. |
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