As Kushána refused to honour the treaty with Athar Saogoth to marry her daughters to the the P'echtra by calling off the merriage a few years before the great wedding, Athar declared war on Akréyani and allowed his sons to take what was promised to them. For several decades did the P'chtra work to impress their brides to be by building huge and wonderful cities for them. They toiled for the matriachy to earn their place beside the most beautiful woman known to the gods. Now that they were betrayed and robbed of a good life they took the woman promised to them by force. The flood of warriors that swept over the continent of Mirópe destroyed everything in its path. Those that could not escape were either raped and killed on the spot or dragged into the dungeons of the ugly beasts.
Watching the war unfold and raze down one of the greatest civilizations made it clear to Athar Saragoth that he had lost control over his creation and abandoned them. Kurami was disgusted by the lack of dicipline of both the P'echtra and their father and came to the conclusion that the only way to stop this madness and protect Arcanis from those creatures is to create his own army to battle this plague.
He went down the Torama, the hightest mountain in Garandor, into his subteranean castle lit by red glowing chandelliers and crackling braziers. Kurami strode along the pitch black basalt hallways and halted infront of a heavy door with golden embroidery. As he layed his hand on the handle the embroidery started to glow red hot. With a click that resounded in the empty halls behind him the door springs open and Kurami entered through the portal into a huge smithy. The bearded god took his best pickaxe and left the room for the mines. The door closed behind him as if pushed by an invisible hand.
Kurami returned after a month searching and mining for the best stone he could find. Then he took millet and chisel to slowly form the face and the body after his own image. Muscular but short bodies with broad grimm faces and long beards. After finishing hewing the sculptures out of the dark grey granite Kurami new that he needed a lot of Mana to infuse them with life. To do so he took a ritual dagger with a red blade and slit his own wrist open to pour his lava hot blood over the motionless and lifeless forms of cold granite. As Amruns younger brother chanted in a deep voice that maked the mountains vibrate the sculpture are slowely enclosed by the gods blood and started to glow bright yellow while Kurami himself seemed to shrink a bit in size. His little figures started to move their fingers first, then their arms and finally their faces seemed to soften a bit and become alive.
With a questioning expression on their faces they looked up to Kurami and he spoke: "You are the only hope for this world. For a world threatened by chaos and plagued by disarray. You my soldiers must bring order and peace and destroy the filthy and barbaric monsters like humans and P'echtra who threaten to devour our wonderful creation. You are my children, my guardians, my army, you are the Kurai. But before you can march against the vermin you have to learn how to bend stone and metal and how to fight.
And so he started to teach them how to feel the earth, how to bend it to their will and shape tunnels, mines and big cities. He showed them how to sense ore behind meters of stone and trained the first priests to maintain order and discipline while he had to retire into his castle because the ritual weakened him. The Mana Kurai used to bring stone to life is lost to him forever.
But the Kurai were not alone. Besides the seat of Kurami, that's what they call the city of their creator, there are endless caves and tunnels carved into the stone long before the awakening of the dwarfen folk. Formed by meltwater that drilled its way into the mountains flesh.
The nutrients carried into these caves and settled there combined with the moist air created the perfect enviornment for mushrooms to grow. But not any mushrooms. Gigantic, tree high, glowing mushrooms. Thanks to the traces of Kuramis mana in the stone that had been slowly gathered by the water through tireless grinding of the mountain range. The reason for the lingering Mana of the god was the usage of his own flesh to create the mountains over thousand years, so the stone is rich with this magical element.
Over time animals like deers, wild boars or even herds of goats found their way into the inner of the caves in search of protection from predetors. They lived of the mushroom trees. But soon predators followed them underground and settled down there due the abundance of prey. It's not clear how other wildlife found its way down there but after a few hundred years before the Kurai were born, a whole eco system evolved inside the mountains fed by the glow of the mushroom trees and the fresh water.
The dwarfes created their cities near these wells of life and soon climbed to the top of the food chain. They tamed the ancestors of the forest bear, the cave bear aswell as other animals to serve as cattle, work animals and so on. The most common was the black goat. They made milk, cheese, meat and even their first tools out of the products of this two meter high and horned creature. The bones and horns were especially robust and usable for any kind of crafts.
At first their cities and populace grew at a steady pace but due to their low fertility rate it stagnated very quickly and it became clear to Kurami that his creation, despite of their high quallity, are not idealy set for the job he assinged them to. So he locked himself into his vault to shield his mind from the preyers of his children and concentrate on a solution.
After 42 days of meditation he came up with a way to help the Kurai without besmirching their purity or compromising their strenght. In the early decades of the dwarfes apprenticeship they badly processed the ore into brittle and impure iron not usable for tools or weapons let alone for reliable armor. Aswell as badly polished gems to ugly and to small to be used as jewelry. That's what he's going to use to create a second species that will serve as levies to the Kurai. Knowing that he risks his godhood by spending yet more Mana by creating another species.
He reached out to his priests in every city to congregate outside his fortress for a holy ritual. He ordered them to collect all the bad iron and gems they crafted in their youth and pile it on two different altars. The heap with the iron is to become the material for the female sex of the new species and the pile with the gems are supposed to be used for the male part.
The chanting of the holy dignitaries aswell as the deep vibrating voice of their god filled the high halls of The Seat. For a second everyone that has gathered for this sacred mess except the priests thought that he halls will fall down any moment as Kurami tuned in. The God of the future guardians of Arcanis took out the same knife he used in the ritual during wich he created the Kurai to slit his right wrist to pour his lava like thick boiling blood all over both heaps. He closed his wound and seemingly weakened he hammered down on the glowing blobs of metal and gems until the first Muri were formed and awoke. They were of smaller hight then the dwarfs and of thinner build then their elder brothers.
Kurami beamed under heavy breath: "You are the Muri, the plenty. You are to serve my children, the Kurai .You will clean their houses, you will see to their cattle, you will maintain their armor and weapons and serve as levy forces to them, so the Kurai can focus their manpower on achieving their holy mission to bring stability and peace to this wreched world. Go now!".
Leaning on his hammer like an old man on his crutch, Kurami retreated back into his vault and sealed its doors. That was the last time he was seen by his mortal children. The priests yelled their commands and the Kurai chained the first Muri and brought them back to their respective cities.
