The Hearthstone is a plain grey boulder, two meters tall, sitting in a paved plaza in the center of Mitte, the Thalvori capital. It emits no Nevril. It transforms nothing. It has no energy signature detectable by any method developed in three centuries of trying.
Physical Description
Grey granite, approximately 2 meters tall, 1.5 meters wide at the base. No visible markings. No structural irregularities. Surface texture consistent with ordinary glacial granite from the northeastern highlands — though it is not from the northeastern highlands. No quarry or geological source in its current location matches its material composition.
It has not moved since the Thalvori first documented it three centuries ago.
The Absence Effect
Everyone who approaches the Hearthstone closely reports the same experience: a sudden, overwhelming sense of absence. Not peace. Not dread. The specific feeling that something that should be present is not.
The experience is consistent across faction backgrounds, Nevril saturation levels, and individual temperament. Molten Scar traders have reported it. Frozen Silence diplomats have reported it. Every Thalvori who has lived in Mitte long enough to visit the plaza closely has reported it.
Most people walk away quietly. Some never come back.
Bren, the Hearthstone Guard, has been present at the plaza for eight years. He is no longer overwhelmed by the absence. He has become, in some way he describes as "accustomed," familiar with it. He describes standing near it now as "standing near the shape of something."
The Sealed Document
Seven Thalvori scholars conducted a six-month proximity study of the Hearthstone three centuries ago, working in isolated shifts. Their findings are sealed in the Neutral Archives' deepest vault.
The document is forty pages. Its conclusion: "It is not gone. It is present in the absence it left. The Hearthstone is not a remnant. It is the silhouette of something that existed. We recommend no further study."
The seven scholars who signed the document are named. Their names match names of people documented in the founding myths of seven other factions — individuals who supposedly lived in the pre-Urknall era.
The Cave Paintings
In deep tunnel systems beneath Mitte — accessible through maintenance passages below the Archive building — there are cave paintings. Material analysis places them in the pre-Urknall era. The paintings show large, indistinct figures. Something central. Something vast. No culture claims them.
Similar paintings have been found in four separate locations across Origor, in deep caves, all in pre-Urknall rock strata.
The Pulse Absence
Every Core in Origor emits the 42-second rhythmic pulse. The Hearthstone does not. This has been noted once in the Neutral Archives' records — in an annotated measurement study comparing Nevril emissions across Origor. The entry reads: "no measurable output. No pulse." The observation is followed by no interpretation.