Herga Karsth

Herga Karsth, of Clan Tharsûk, is a long-lived Dwarf—a warrior, a smith, and an outcast. Originally offered by her clan chieftain to serve as a priestess, Herga yearned to delve into the art of the forge, a path forbidden to her because she was a woman. Indignant, she rejected the priesthood and swore the Oath of the Exile, leaving her society "temporarily" to pursue her passion for smithing on her own terms; she soon gained widespread acclaim among petty human kings. However, passion gave way to obsession, and Herga sought to probe ever deeper into the art of Runic Smithing, venturing to uncover arcane secrets of magical weapon-forging that even the finest smiths of her race deemed dangerous. Such concerns mattered little to Herga; she soon abandoned any thought of returning home and voluntarily became an outcast, making great discoveries and crafting weapons of immense quality and power. She handed these creations—without a second thought—to various human petty kings, who used the weapons' runic power to unleash wars and calamities upon their own kind (and other races) that remain a source of deep regret to this day. Witnessing firsthand the devastation her works had wrought seemed to snap Herga out of her trance; while she did not abandon her quest for arcane knowledge, she vowed from then on to keep her discoveries secret.