Stone Summit

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The Stone Summit will never yield! We do not need a "blessing" given, nor will we pay its price. Strength is taken, not granted.

— Journal of Forgemender Arngirn

A Stone Summit Crusher corrupted by Primordus.

The Stone Summit was an old dwarven faction that used to be active in the Shiverpeak Mountains. Initially led by King Jalis Ironhammer's cousin Dagnar Stonepate, it was a militant organization that hated outsiders and sought to conquer and enslave them all. After the Rite of the Great Dwarf compelled all dwarves on Tyria to turn into stone, scholars believed that all the surviving Stone Summit had joined forces with their Deldrimor rivals and descended into the Depths of Tyria to fight the Elder Dragon Primordus and his destroyers together. Centuries later, the shadow of the Stone Summit still looms over the Shiverpeaks as their now liberated dredge slaves attempt to empower themselves by any means necessary so they will never be subjugated again while they seek out both Deldrimor and Stone Summit artifacts and ruins to destroy all traces of dwarven civilization from Tyria.

Culture

The Stone Summit prided themselves on their fanaticism. To them, there was only one right way to do things—their way. There was only one group worthy of ruling the world—the Stone Summit. All other life was meaningless to them. They were cruel, brutal, calculating, and cold hearted to a degree rarely seen in civilized nations. A Stone Summit dwarf could split a man's head without a thought and feel as little concern as if he had just stepped on an earthworm.

The dwarves of the faction did not bother to tame their mounts, rather preferring to simply chain the beasts and overpower them, making them bend to their will rather than becoming accustomed to their new role. If given the opportunity, they would enslave humans and other, "non-pure" dwarves as well. The most notable of the races the Stone Summit enslaved were the dredge.

The Stone Summit was a complex military organization consisting of several ranks and honors. As master engineers they built structures that would last for centuries. As arcanists they could bind powerful demons into relics and even make pacts with them, feeding the demons with victims and the emotion of hate in exchange for power.

In later years, the Stone Summit had members who worshiped the Great Destroyer, the archnemesis of the Great Dwarf according to dwarven legends.

History

Early history

Although the Deldrimor dwarves had had peaceful trade relations with humans for centuries, a rift began forming between various dwarves about how to treat the other races. These ideological differences eventually led Dagnar Stonepate, cousin of King Jalis Ironhammer, to found the xenophobic Stone Summit faction whose goal was to overthrow King Ironhammer and enslave the other races of Tyria in order to usher in an age of dwarven superiority. To realize their vision, the Stone Summit engaged in a brutal civil war with the more peaceful Deldrimor dwarves.

The Stone Summit successfully took over several key locations throughout the Shiverpeaks during the civil war, making the conquered areas hostile to travel through for Deldrimor and non-dwarves alike. One of their notable fortresses was what would later be known as Dwarves' Gloaming in Lornar's Pass. They used the fortress's royal vault to store several of their most valued and magical artifacts and other weapons within, including the Sanguinary Blade which had been forged from the frozen blood of the Elder Dragon Jormag and which could corrupt anyone it touched.

They successfully enslaved the dredge and subjugated several native creatures for mount use such as dolyaks and snow beasts. Masters of engineering and the arcane, the Stone Summit bound demons into various relics and used djinn to magically power up constructs such as the Iron Forgeman which was used to control Sorrow's Furnace and the flames of the gargantuan furnace deep within the mine for the war effort.

Conflicts in the Shiverpeaks

Following the Searing of Ascalon during the human-charr conflict in 1072 AE, several Ascalonian refugees led by Prince Rurik attempted to reach a sanctuary in Kryta through the Shiverpeaks in order to flee the invading charr forces. They were forced to fight against the Stone Summit who had been preying on the travelers after blocking the path to Borlis Pass.

In order to secure a safe passage for his people, Rurik led negotiations with King Jalis, invoking the ancient alliance between humans and dwarves, and discovered that the Stone Summit were besieging the Deldrimor village of Krok's Hollow. The Ascalonians helped the Deldrimor drive back the besiegers, which earned them the goodwill of King Jalis who in turn offered them shelter and valuable intel during their long trek through the mountains.

The Ascalonians learned that the Stone Summit were intending to build a new kind of siege weapon which would devastate Deldrimor defenses in a decisive strike. They aided the Deldrimor by stealing the blueprints but found an obstacle at the Frost Gate which they needed to open in order to leave the mountains behind. While the dwarves and humans worked on the gate mechanisms, Dagnar and his Stone Summit forces ambushed them, seeking revenge for earlier defeats. Prince Rurik perished in a last stand to buy time for the rest of the weary refugees, including several heroes, to flee to safety.

The Stone Summit eventually succeeded in taking over Thunderhead Keep, forcing King Jalis and his brother Brechnar Ironhammer to sound the retreat for the Deldrimor. Before the dwarven loyalists could be fully beaten, however, they witnessed a welcome sight. The Ascalonian heroes, now accompanied by the Shining Blade and Vizier Khilbron, came to the assistance of the Deldrimor and helped retake the keep after a fierce battle while fulfilling parts of the dragon Glint's Flameseeker Prophecies. Several Stone Summit champions fell during the battle, including Dagnar Stonepate himself.

The fall of their leader left the Stone Summit in disarray, which allowed the Deldrimor to drive them into the Far Shiverpeaks. Upon learning of the existence of the Iron Forgeman and using their recent victories to their advantage, the Deldrimor sent in spies disguised as slaves to scout Sorrow's Furnace, hindered the Stone Summit's leadership, and then sent in a small squad of dwarves and humans who successfully destroyed the Iron Forgeman itself.

A Stone Summit hierophant named Morlog discovered the Tome of the Rubicon and attempted to decipher its writings so he could speak out the name of the Great Destroyer, nemesis of the Great Dwarf, and summon a creature believed to be so powerful it would end the world. Morlog was defeated by the Deldrimor High Priest Alkar and his human allies, however, and the tome was taken into safekeeping. Around the same time, the heroes also helped the oppressed dredge rebels led by Molenin to stage a revolution against the Stone Summit, further reducing the dwarves' resources and allowing the dredge to found their own nation free from the yoke of their Stone Summit masters.

The ranks of the Stone Summit were gradually fracturing after their defeats, and a few Stone Summit left their faction and began the path towards atonement. At least one former member, Ural Highstone, became a follower of the goddess Dwayna.

Spending several years in exile, the weakened Stone Summit clans would regroup under new hierophants who stepped into the power vacuum to lead the survivors while trying to find new sources of power to take back their lost lands. In 1078 AE, heroes assisted Molenin once again by defeating both a Stone Summit excavation party, who were using their dredge slaves to dig deeper into Vloxen Excavations, as well as the lich Zoldark the Unholy, who was manipulating the Stone Summit to come to him so he could use them and the dredge for his own ends.

Among the most notorious hierophants during this time was Duncan the Black who attempted to harness the essence of the slain Great Destroyer, which would be revealed as a champion of the Elder Dragon Primordus in the decades to come, so the Stone Summit would become powerful enough to subjugate the Deldrimor. After a group of heroes defeated Duncan in Slavers' Exile, the remnants of the Stone Summit scattered into the wilderness with their fates unknown.

Legacy

Interim years

Some of the Deldrimor cursed the graves of certain individual Stone Summit members who had killed their friends. These arcane curses were so potent that they would linger around dwarven graves for centuries in locations such as Stonesledge Draft.

About fifty years after the Rite of the Great Dwarf was first performed, the last of the flesh and blood dwarves felt the call to undergo the Rite themselves. Modern day scholars came to believe that the Deldrimor and the Stone Summit had set aside their differences due to the compulsions of the Rite and joined forces to fight a common foe, the destroyers, leaving the Deldrimor Ogden Stonehealer as the only known stone dwarf above ground in the decades since.

The dredge's cruel enslavement under the Stone Summit, and the territorial disputes which arose when they eventually won their freedom, were the primary reason why the dredge became aggressive and mistrusting of outsiders in the present day. As a result, the dredge began working tirelessly to erase all evidence of dwarven culture, including artifacts, journals, items and even entire buildings, from the face of Tyria while they slowly came to view themselves as a superior race fit to conquer Tyria like their former Stone Summit masters had attempted before them.

Before vanishing, the Stone Summit honored their fallen leaders and champions by building various tombs for them throughout the Shiverpeaks. Among the most notable of these monuments were the two princely tombs dedicated to Dagnar Stonepate at Molent Summit, and in the Windy Cave, and the tomb of Hierophant Morlog at Tribulation Rift. Scholars of the Durmand Priory, tomb raiders, and pirates working for Admiral Taidha Covington's alliance would explore the Shiverpeaks in the modern day to find valuable tomes, weapons and other artifacts and either take them for studying or confiscate them to sell them on the black market.

Although several Stone Summit fortresses and tombs fell to the ravages of time, looting and vandalism, some of their artifacts and ruins were still found in the Shiverpeaks, most notably in Sorrow's Furnace which was renamed as Sorrow's Embrace, an old Deldrimor base of operations that had been taken over by the Stone Summit and used as their capital for a time. Following the Stone Summit's disappearance, the base was taken over by the dredge who used it as their own capital where their Inquest allies led by Kudu would revitalize the work on the Iron Forgeman for a time in 1325 AE.

The Icebrood Saga

Unbeknownst to all, a Stone Summit splinter group had remained deep within Darkrime Delves and the area surrounding it in Bjora Marches, protecting their stronghold with zeal and with the assistance of an Ancient Forgeman. By the time the charr Steel Warband encountered the Stone Summit remnants in 1332 AE, the dwarves were no longer intelligible and could only howl as they summoned destroyers to their side and attacked anything within vicinity in rage much to the charr's surprise.

Scattered pages from the Journal of Forgemender Arngirn shed some light on the twilight of the Stone Summit and what had transpired in their decaying strongholds over the centuries. According to the journal, most of the Stone Summit clans had agreed to a peace treaty with the Deldrimor and joined the fight against Primordus once the compulsive effects of the Rite of the Great Dwarf had begun to take hold of the dwarven race as a whole. However, a zealous Stone Summit splinter group had rejected the terms of the treaty as unfavorable and isolated themselves into Darkrime Delves and the areas north of it, fiercely guarding their last strongholds while fighting both the rite's physical and mental transformation that their bodies were undergoing as well as an ever-growing force of the Elder Dragon Jormag's invading icebrood.

In their desperation to hold on to their individuality, the splinter group turned to ancient scrolls recovered from the tomb of Duncan the Black. These scrolls revealed dark rituals that would allow the dwarves to either undo the physical transformation caused by the rite or at least leverage it for their uses. Though they lacked insight that the Tome of the Rubicon could have provided, the Stone Summit remnants did not believe in ancient prophecies and wished to forge their own path: they would harness the power of the Great Destroyer in order to overcome their current state. Although the ritual appeared to be a success, some dwarves melted from within and were reduced to ash while the ritual priests pondered if they had actually been drawing from a power that was greater and more ancient than the Great Destroyer.

Some of the dwarves who did not succumb to the initial effects of the dark ritual became erratic and violent, causing in-fighting among the dwarves much to the priests' confusion. Eventually every surviving dwarf in the splinter group felt a sense of burning within them as they began to think less and less. By the time the icebrood attacks lessened, the Stone Summit remnant had closed the gates and secured their remaining fortresses until all of them succumbed to the effects of their new state and became bound to the true source they had been calling their ritual magic from: Primordus.

Known historical bases

Shiverpeak Mountains

• Bjora Marches
  • Darkrime Delves

• Sorrow's Embrace

• Forging Steel
  • Stoneward Halls

• Lornar's Pass
  • False Lake
    • Dwarves' Gloaming

• Timberline Falls
  • Tyrant's Mount
    • Rankor Ruins

Members

See also: Category:Stone Summit

• Champion Stone Summit Crusher
• Champion Stone Summit Drake Rider
• Elite Stone Summit Cannoneer
• Stone Summit Cannoneer
• Stone Summit Crusher
• Stone Summit Ranger
• Stone Summit Warder
• Veteran Stone Summit Cannoneer
• Veteran Stone Summit Crusher
• Veteran Stone Summit Demolitionist
• Veteran Stone Summit Drake Rider
• Veteran Stone Summit Ranger
• Veteran Stone Summit Warder

Related achievements

• Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire: Delving for Treasure — While journeying through Darkrime Delves in the Scrying Pool's visions, explore to find lost treasures. (6)
• Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire: Fallen from the Summit — Scour the area to retrieve intel on hostile forces in the Forging Steel and Darkrime Delves visions. (5)
• Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire: Onsite Procurement — Commandeer and fire stone cannons in the Forging Steel vision. (10)
• Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire: Slaver's Extinction — Defeat the hostile inhabitants of the ruins in and around Darkrime Delves. (16)

See also

The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Stone Summit.

• Books: Records of the Stone Summit
• Deldrimor
• Stone Summit Siege Weaponry
• Transformation of the Dwarves

Associated items

• Stone Summit armor
• Ancient Stone Summit Shoulder Spike
• Stone Summit Badge
• Stone Summit Dwarf Badge
• Stone Summit Shoulder Spike
• Stone Summit Yakslapper