The Terrene People

The Terrene were a deeply ancient culture, predating the rise of the dwarven subterranean cities during the Deepstone Era. My study posits they were the original practitioners of geomancy, establishing a society predicated entirely on the sanctity of the living earth, a stark philosophical opposite to the contemporary sky-gazing Aerilon Ascendancy. Their belief system revolved around a profound reverence for the subterranean flow of Auric Resonance, viewing the mountains not as a resource to be exploited, but as a sentient being they were sworn to protect. They shunned industrial extraction, instead cultivating the life-giving mineral, Terra Vitae, which they utilized in sacred rites for geological healing and stabilization, a practice far removed from the later hubris of the Age of Weaving. Their social structure was guided by the Elder of the Veins, matriarchal geomancers who could perceive the earth’s energetic pathways, meticulously documented in vast archives of ceremonial carvings known as the Petroglyphs of the Depths. This ancient wisdom, only fractionally preserved today in texts like the Chapter of the Veins, reveals a focused effort to maintain energetic equilibrium and actively combat the spread of corruption like the destabilizing Gloomfungus. It is believed their disciplined governance helped maintain regional stability until the catastrophic events leading to the Great Sundering finally fractured their civilization. Their surviving spiritual lineage, perhaps including the predecessors of the Silent Monks of Durin's Peak, retreated deepest, preserving their reverence as a timeless caution against the unsustainable appetites of surface empires. The act of recording shapes this truth: Umbral was warned by history itself.