Prologue, January First, 2010...
    They called it Mithril. It was a silverish-blue colored metal, and it was protected and nearly invulnerable from and to any outside force. There’s actually a funny story about how it was discovered, but that comes later. For scientists had only recently discovered a vein of the Mithril near what was once known as Dublin, Ireland, and the vein was huge. It spread underground from the source in Dublin all the way to what was once known as Norway.
    After the source was discovered, geologists theorized that the vein of metal was, in actuality, a river of argent, liquefied metal. When the geologists’ interests were fully piqued and they began investigating further into the river, they found that the river was much bigger than theorized, and spread around the world, from Dublin, to Norway, to Moscow, to Shanghai, to San Diego, to New York City, and back to Dublin.
    After being unable to find anything more with the river, the group of geologists thought that there must be more to such a scientific arising.
    And so they began searching the rest of the Earth.
    And what they found astounded them. As many as ten rivers of Mithril were discovered, one running right through the Equator, another angling down straight through the meridian, and a fourth simply flowing in circles in Northern Canada. The fifth was discovered as a winding stream flowing through the Pacific, snaking through Alaska, Hawaii, and Japan. Three more still were found south of Vladivostok, a Russian city, running parallel to each other and spanning from Moscow to Tokyo. The final river was cascading throughout the United States, mostly within the Rocky Mountains. All of these were found about three miles underground from their respective locations.
    The abundance of rivers covering the globe really got all scientists’, and indeed, every single persons’, attention, and after finding that nothing would be hurt in the mining of the Mithril, an Irish oil company used an old oil rig to extract Mithril from the river near Dublin. But ran into a small snag.
    The tough steel rig melted on the spot, leaving no remains as the liquefied metal overheated and devoured it’s oppressor. The oil company was taken aback, but continued to try for the obvious source of power.
    Their next attempt was a blinding failure, as they sent in men, literally dressed in space suits, to try and contain the ore within specially built bags. All the men survived, but many were taken to the nearest health facility for third-degree burn treatment, a few actually went mad from the insane heat that crept past the air conditioning system of the suits and melted skin wherever it touched, leaving the victim in disbelief and utter pain. Those few that came out untouched instantly quit the company and left for...safer jobs.
    The oil company had only to surrender, and even then could not save their reputation as those first few that tried, but utterly failed. The company went slowly into an economic nose-dive and eventually crashed, laying off the thousands of workers it had under it’s power. All because of one certain type of silver, known as Mithril.
    As research progressed, the geologists assigned to the task began using more and more unique methods to find ways to extract the liquid-hot ore.
    They cut away walls to allow more heat to escape from the channels, they installed cooling panels throughout the caves that they made. They even went so far as to try and completely freeze the ore.
    Eventually, one of the geologists accidentally cut away too much wall, and the resulting rockslide was tremendous, but not a threat to the geologists using remotely controlled robots to do their dirty work. But what the slide revealed was huge. Not in a literal sense, but the actual impact on the mining of Mithril silver, and on society, was enormous.
    It was just a book, written in Gaelic, what several at the time theorized was the language of the Dwarves. Interpreters copied the story into English, the universal world language, and the geologists showed the world why Mithril was what it was.
    Paraphrased, the story goes something like this...
Chapter One: Of Dwarves and Mithril, January First, 800
    “Et’s MINE ” the man roared.
    “Ye onleh wish et was yoors, Gael.” replied the other man in a quiet sense.
    “Come on, Harkin ” Gael yelled in reply.
    The other man simply sat there, breathing heavily through a dark red beard and watching Gael with sharp, beetle-black eyes.
    “Whet the King sez, gooes, Gael, ye know tha’”
    The shorter man, Gael, jumped up and yelled with bloodshot eyes.
    “Ah don’t give a damn about ne King, Harkin, tha’ battleaxe is mine ”
    The older, taller dwarf jumped up, his nose three inches from the black beard that Gael sported. Most dwarves were a good four and a half feet tall, but not lacking in strength or stature, nor spirit. But Harkin’s height was nearly that of five feet tall, his eyes a good six inches higher than Gael’s brick-red eyes.
    “Wha’ battleaxe? This one?”
    Harkin pulled a brilliant double-headed axe from behind his desk. The Mithril blades sharpened to perfection and the handle polished and made with fine maple.
    “How’d...how’d ye get tha’”? Gael, flabbergasted, managed to choke out.
    “Ye wouldn’t believe tha’ methods ah have of acquirin’ certain...objects, Gael. En fact, tha’ particular blade...is yoors, Gael.”
    “WHAT? ” Gael exploded in a storm of words, “Ah come to YE lookin’ fer someone te find me battleaxe, and only te find that ye, YE of all PEOPLE  Harkin, ye stole that axe from me, and ah’m lookin’ te take et back ”
    The resulting battle concluded with the ends of the lives of the two dwarven friends, with Gael’s youngness overcoming Harkin’s experience, and in a dying desperation move, Harkin impaled Gael upon the battleaxe that started the trouble.
    The Dwarven race had come down with the Mithril fever earlier in the past year, each and every one nursing a deep desire to get their hands on some of the amazing silver, even the women and children. Hell, even the pacifists wanted the argent metal for what they did.
    Finally coming to their senses in the year 833, a group of Dwarves finally realized what was happening, and rose up in rebellion against the group of power, and Mithril hungry corrupt Dwarves.
    The beginning of the war had the rebellion off on the wrong foot and with a severe disadvantage. They went to battle head-to-head with the Mithril-armed dwarves, wielding only steel weapons and shields. The Mithril swords shattered steel battleaxes, and spiked Mithril shields tore apart battered steel shields. The war quickly declined, and the Dwarven Rebellion officially put down, but unofficially still existent, and those left to rebel continued to carry out guerilla strikes on corrupt Dwarven caves.


Zim