“The foundation of the mountain” — the dwarven city inside Sky Spear, built above a seam of star metal and now walled twice over.
Founded: c. 2,000 years before year zero (First Age), by Atlas through the Stone Talus · Great Wall: c. year 610 (Third Age) (Atlas)
Story
The Dwarves were born of the Stone Talus shattered by lightning from Sky Spear’s spear-tip, and went to live inside the mountain. Astralis seeded star metal in its rock; the dwarves can see it like anyone else, but they also feel it glinting in the fissures, and it is one reason they never left. When Atlas commanded the Talus again, the dwarves built Kharag Duun above the star-metal deposit, taking it as a sign that the powers had made a home for them. They worship the Talus and the one who made him.
Around year 100, the dwarves learned to meld magic from the crystals with star metal, and the Talus raised the Magical Forge here, fed with magma from the mountain’s depths.
The Great Wall. The dwarves sat idle for five centuries; since the Bazaar rose, c. year 500, they have sold star metal there. Around year 610, they looked at the chaos, declared themselves the first and best of races, and walled Kharag Duun twice over: the Great Wall (Atlas).
In the Third Age the dwarves raised an army (c. year 620) and the Stone Talus another (c. year 630); they marched with the Talus to take Greenhaven (c. year 640) and became master diplomats, taught in their schools. The third meteor split Sky Spear’s ancient ice and left the mountain porous — tunnels and caverns open where none were.
Now
Walled twice over, full of diplomats and star metal. The mountain around it is suddenly porous, with tunnels no one has walked, and who knows what lives in them.
Connections
- Sky Spear — the mountain it is carved into
- Star Metal — the seam it was built above
- Stone Talus — progenitor, worshipped here
- Stone Defenders — the dwarves’ first warrior sect
- Magical Forge — the wonder at its heart
- Greenhaven — the city the dwarves now rule
- Magisters — the dwarves’ evil ruling caste
Open: whether the new Sky Spear tunnels reach Kharag Duun [?].