The Mountainshark Clan was a warband in the West Dwarovar. The warband made up of ex-slave Rustroad Goblins. Using the teachings of their liberator, Glozok The Great Shark, they set out to make their own home and to maybe continue his ambitions of goblin freedom.
History[]
Foundation of the Clan[]
When the majority of Orcs left the Serpentspine to join the Greentide in 1424, Glozok The Great Shark saw his chance to finally fulfill his goal of freeing all goblins from slavery. He kept going from one rebellion to the next knowing the only way he would stop is if he died. In the fall of 1428 seeing his next target he silently infiltrated a warband and after convincing the goblins there to break their chains, he set forth his plan. Procuring makeshift and stolen weapons, poisoning the food of the orcs, and brutally assassinating the leader, the goblins could then overwhelm the rest of the orcs and were able to finally taste freedom. Before leaving for his next rebellion he taught the clan his tenets of genius, cunning, and incredible violence. And after a bittersweet goodbye they never saw him again. The clan decided to venerate their hero by naming themselves after him “The Mountainshark Clan''. The clan now needing supplies then briefly joined the Railskulker Clan but were soon expelled due to a dispute over the rail tithe.
Mountainshark Ingenuity and Philosophy[]
Mithril Production and Minting[]
With the rebuilding and repairing of the Mithril Hold came the question of how to restart the mithril foundrys. While the goblins knew the concept of basic iron production from The Great Shark teachings or as time as slaves, they had no tools or experience of mining or smelting Mithril. They did have the old foundries of the great mithril hold and time. Through many trials and burning down much of parts of the hold later they found a way to mine and smelt mithril. Then they soon started using their old dwarven canons for explosives to help speed up mining. This led to them needing to create and use the mithril faster. These constant changes and innovations lead to the Mountainshark Goblins creating a proto screw press to make their coins faster than the traditional method of hammering coins.
Sharkskins were coins made of gold or silver that are coated or plated in mithril. They were temporarily created out of necessity by the Mountainshark Clan due to a shortage of money and gold. This led to such a big boost to their treasury that they made mithril a permanent part of their currency due to the influx of trade and treasury it brought the clan's economy. Two much greater valued coins were later made called Sharkteeth and Sharkhearts. A Sharktooth was a mithril alloy coin while a Sharkheart was a 100% mithril coin. Many goblins started scamming traders with Sharkteeth pretending as if they were Sharkhearts to many traders so much so that genuine Sharkhearts were hard to come by outside of the clan. However much of what currency that has traveled outside the clan is still very traded as currency or just for its mithril.
Emulating the Great Shark[]
These were excerpts taken from a critique of local emulations of the Great Shark by an unknown goblin writer. This and many other debates on the definition or directions of the Great Sharks teaching are the fundamental backbone of Mountainshark philosophy.
"Cunning, “Never let your enemy know what you're up to until it's too late.” The Great Shark’s tenet of cunning has always been the strong suite of most goblins but never has it been used in the advancement of the goblin cause on such a scale. Taking this to heart our clan uses cunning as a way to test and breed talent within our ranks. Our politicians need to be able to not only rally the people but also get rid of any obstacles. Our generals need not only protect our nation and ideals but to also spread them and take out any opposition. But cunning is not perfect, without genius nothing can flourish, without violence we can't enact our cunning.”
"Genius, “Do not try to be stronger than your enemy. Try to be smarter.” Most think all goblins' ideas are from stealing from others. Most are, but we find a better use of it. The dwarves left an abundance of technologies we had no way of understanding them but given time we will and improve on it. Take for example the dwarven cannons we now have fixed and refurbished them for home defense just like The Great Shark would have wanted. Korgus has shown us that constraints can breed creativity. We learned that we must make do with what we have or we will be forced to use violence to take what is needed. But Violence can’t happen spontaneously, we must use cunning to grow until the time is right.”
"Violence, “If you want freedom, you have to fight for it.” The Sepentspine’s history is told in blood. A naive thought would be to try and stop its cycle of constant bloodshed. We do not have the power to do so yet. If we can't stop it we must harness it to make it work for us. We must pit our enemies against each other. We must use violence to protect what is ours. We must use violence to make sure no goblin will be in chains again. Violence is just one tool, like Cunning and Genius, but it is one we must not be afraid to use.” However others instead of debating choose to try to emulate his actions.
The Chain Reforgers, a mercenary group that was created to liberate and further the cause of the Great Shark. Wielding his tenet of Violence and the iron of the chains of when they were slaves as material for their weapons and armor. The band raids orcish warbands and dwarven mines to free their brethren and teach them tenets of The Great Shark. Though much of the mercenary group's operations are funded by politicians using their donations to the group to get public support. The group's emulation of The Great Sharks slave revolting journey is not perfect but is still highly effective at their main aspiration, Goblin Freedom.