The Stoneslab Warhammer is the ancestral weapon of the Dow peoples, a subterranean culture renowned for their mastery of black bronze and their heavy infantry. Forged for soldiers encased in plate from head to toe, the warhammer was not a mere tool of battle but a symbol of endurance and well-placed arrogance, for no armour can withstand its sustained blows. Each hammer features a black bronze head, dense enough to crush through plate and stone alike, mounted on a haft of ironwood braced with riveted bands, with the entire weapon being about one metre long. The striking face is flat and broad on both sides, designed to transfer maximum concussive force.
In battle, Dow phalanxes advanced slowly and methodically, each warrior a walking fortress. The Stoneslab Warhammer’s blows were measured, deliberate, and catastrophic, crushing shields, bending cuirasses, and sending shockwaves through flesh and bone. Against lighter foes, however, the weapon’s weight and momentum became a hindrance; all Dow warriors carried secondary axes, such as the Stonecutter Hatcher, or short spears for swifter kills.
Legends claim that a typical Stoneslab Warhammer could endure forty thousand strikes without warping or dulling, and that the greatest among them were blessed by the forges of the underworld, said to ring with the voices of the Dow ancestors each time the hammer struck true. In later millennia, far beyond the disappearance of these peoples, their weapons became heirlooms of clans and officers, often bearing inscriptions recording every battle they had survived.