The Holy Shieldbearers, Hillwielders, Vorv Hudmuk,
These are only a few of the names which are given to the mercenaries of the North; these peasants from primitive regions swept by żora, never-ending blizzards and stone-storms, accustomed to the Laughter and dread of their land. These are the ones that left, rejected their stone crones, the rocks they milked for generations; taking only a small goatskin of the black water, as they made their way southwards they picked up a hillock and carried it on their shoulders. In the Courts they forced the harnessing of these rude hills into shield-forms, then marching on in hollow steps, to the lands where great leaders wage their wars, and blood can be bought for gold.
There, wielding their indefinite shields they stand in front of armies, sheltering them from the rains of arrows and the power of war-mages. Not dozens, but hundreds of times have they saved the troops from avalanches on the mountain paths. They take up duels with the opponent's best soldiers; they straighten their ribs, smash their skulls, tear off their arms. Shrewd commanders can make startling use of them; Kamendżi the Invicible ordered six Shieldbearers to break their shields over the current of the Koronejia, one of the biggest rivers of the East. The hills, freed with the shattering of their forms, dammed the river and enabled Kamendżi's army to make swift and sudden passage.
It is worth speaking some more of the indefinite shields, as the idea is quite abstract. Usually, they look normal; only very sensitive senses and hajnometer forces can detect their energy. For the power of hills and mountains is harnessed deep within them, hammered down by force and coercion. This explains one of the few 'stable' features of the shields: their unimaginable weight. If the Shieldbearer doesn't have enough strength, he will find himself wading through the ground (a bizzare sight indeed), anyway, weaklings like these will not carry their shields for long. A good Shieldbearer carries his shield with no effort at all, yet in a tavern he won't rest it on the floor by the table – the effect would be as if the whole harnessed weight of the hill was put on this spot (in most cases resulting in a new entrance to the cellar, just fine for a carriage – or two). If he casts it at the building, or – worse - at a human, terrible things happen. Another feature of the shield is their great resistance – even if they look like an ordinary buckler they won't even be scratched by normal blows. Moreover – they will entirely absorb the force of such weak strokes. In order to penetrate the indefinite shield one has to inflict a blow capable of piercing dozens of meters of solid earth; in order to shatter it, one needs the strength to level hills and mountains.
But the real power has to be released. Like the man that clenches his fingers on the hound's scruff, pushes its head down, forces it to obey – that is how the Shieldbearer masters the inertia of height, mass and size of his shield in order to realize its strength. This is clear even to the naked eye as the dimming of colors around the shield. In this field, the light of the Sun seems to fade, the overall sensation is like the one before fainting; pounding in the temples, blackness before the eyes, muffling of sounds, gasping for breath. If the Shieldbearer continues, the force, thus far harnessed, APPEARS as a murky form, the SHAPE of the hill resting on the shield. This is the full manifestation of its power – arrows and sword will bounce from its surface as if they struck the slope of a hill. Lifted above the head, it will shelter scores, even hundreds of people. When placed to the ground - it will RAM in, its weight CRUSHES rocks, and easier still, fragile human bodies. It can STEM the flood, DIVIDE the river of fire, it will easily absorb the blows of over-activated war-mage.
Realizing the power of the shield runs the risk of the harnessed shape breaking free. For, contrary to the claims of the scholars, elements have some sort of conscience and will; if they are restricted they try to get back to their original state – and that in a much broader sense than one would expect. The hill that has shattered the shield or that has grown back from its wreckage, almost always 'appears' in a new place and often... it wants to get back to where it belongs. I lie not! There are many soldiers who have witnessed something of the like and survived. With a hollow rumble of massive stones, crash of gravel, and clatter of rocks falling off its slopes – a hill (or a mountain!) begins to push northwards like a gigantic, congealed wave. However, the force of the friction between its moving 'belly' and the ground causes it to shrink with every passed kilometer – hardly any mountain is high and powerful enough to make it back home. Of course it doesn't pay any attention to such irrelevant things as rivers, villages, lakes or towns in its way...
Therefore the Shieldbearers are thought of as terrifying soldiers; only the best of commanders can subjugate them and harness them to obey their plans.
