The Rubble

The Rubble, or the Big Rubble is one of the great wonders of Glorantha.  What can be seen now - the mighty 25m high walls and the ruins within - are the remains of the city founded by Pavis during the era of the Empire of the Wyrms' Friends.  Pavis was a hero (at the time, now a demi-god) who was originally born in Adari around the year 800.  Arriving in Dragon Pass as a refugee after Adari was sacked by trolls and giants, he learned great magic, and used it to animate the Faceless Status that sat upon the Empty Throne in Shadows Dance.  Riding this status with his followers, we defeated Paragua and his giants that at the time occupied the site that would become Pavis, then the ruins of a God-Learner city called Robcradle.

He established the city using the remains of the Faceless Statue, helped by dwarves led by Flintnail.  The city was vast, and never fully occupied - there were always large areas of parkland and farmland within the giant walls.

After the apotheosis of Pavis, the city was ruled by the Arrowsmith clan, until Jaldon Toothmaker bit through the walls with his golden teeth and subjected it to the first nomad sack.  Once the walls were penetrated and the Arrowsmith clan was destroyed, there were repeated nomad incursions and sacks.  Gradually the diminshed inhabitants withdrew to a series of fortified strongpoints within the rubble of the great city.

The final stroke came not from the nomads though, but from a great troll army led by Gerrak Kag.  This defeated the combined armies of the nomads at Pairing Stone and then advanced to the walls of Pavis.  Gerrak Kag and his elite guards used their heroic jumping ability to jump onto the top of the walls and open the gates to their incoming troll hordes.  The last king of Pavis, Balastor, died at the Griffin Gate trying to stem the tide.  The trolls slaughtered all humans they could find (those that were not able to take refuge in the forts), and then sealed the gates with lead and magic, settling down to rule their new domain.  They mainly settled in the south-east, along the great nomad break, fortifying it against nomad attacks.  On the other side of the river, in the south west, the original botanic gardens ran wild, encouraged by the Aldryami that dwelled there.  Humans tended to stick to the north west corner.  The lands in between were fought over endlessly.  To the nomads, Pavis was unassailable - a demon-haunted, brooding presence on the plains.  Even those who sailed through it on the river did so hurredly, and during daylight hours.

The first crack in the Rubble came with the Dragonnewts' Dream.  The first spectral processing of dragonnewts attempting to reach their ancestral temple in the Rubble was defeated by the troll magic and spirits at the Wyvern Gate.  The second procession was larger, and better prepared.  The magical struggle was fierce, and blasted the Wyvern Gate apart.  The dragonnewts entered and performed their spectral ritual in the ruins of their temple, and the magic that held sealed Pavis was broken for ever.