Underneath the great Drakuth Mountains, lies the largest dwarven settlements in the world, with cities taking up entire mountains. Countless dwarves live in these cities and settlements underneath the ground, away from the fierce predators that inhabit the mountain ranges above. Using the plethora of materials and monster parts that they find, the dwarves have become master craftsmen, as well as masons and enchanters. Their longer lives and fierce loyalty brings about mighty clans that rule over the cities and protect the people from the monsters that inhabit the mountain with them.
The dwarves share the endless space in the mountains with a plethora of monsters that they have fought for millennia and have grown deep grudges for. Goblins, orcs, druegar, dark elves, and many other cave dwellers inhabit the unexplored caves or lost settlements. The dwarves, to combat these monsters and dangers to their kind, have great smithies dedicated to the creation of as many weapons as possible, to fight these beasts.
These lost caverns and settlements are due to the dwarves losing many wars underneath and being brought to the edge of extinction from the mountain, due to a plethora of reasons including monsters from the Crag, dwarven civil wars, magical plagues and outside interference.
Many libraries were also lost, and with the dwarves being solitary within their mountains and not letting barely anyone in, have led to their civilizations having to relearn everything when their cities fall and they have to restart their conquest of the mountain range all over again. Some of the times the dwarves have lost are not nearly as bad as others, and most are tales of a settlement or mining expedition being lost to a strong monster, but other tales show of times where huge wars were fought, both against monsters and themselves, and have led to scars in the mountain and dwarven society that last to this day.
One of the largest scars upon dwarven society in Drakuth, and most dwarven settlements in general, are goblin wars. Goblin wars, or more commonly known as Greenskin tides, are when huge groups of goblins, orcs, and other tribal monsters come together and invade the dwarven tunnels, killing and pillaging everything on their path. One particular time in Drakuth history, the dwarves were led to almost extinction as the Greekskins pushed them back away from both their capital and CragHoldt, and cornered them in a quarter of their old territory. After a great war where hero’s stepped into the spotlight, they pushed the Greenskins out of their capital and retook their lost territory.
Nowadays, the tunnels have been rather calm and while goblin tribes are found whenever mining expeditions are sent out, they are seen as pests instead of a great threat against the clans. Dwarven smiths now can produce what they want to sell, and wizards tend to become more enchanters and craftsmen instead of the warmages of old. Other dwarves have also become traders with the outside, and many new inventions have been discovered and old tunnels unearthed and explored.
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Explorations and mining expeditions are one of the few things that never stop in the larger dwarven mountain ranges. New mineral veins to uncover and old settlements filled with gold and treasure to be found fill the dwarves' minds, as well as tough monsters to fight for the warriors and combat mages.
Some of the most notable finds in recent history was one of the old enchanter colleges that was felled during the Green tide, and while most of the buildings were destroyed in the fighting, some of the major buildings helped with the restoration of magical research as they had a plethora of information in secret, magically protected safes. Another place was the Garden of Stone, which was one of the most esoteric places in the mountain range. Filled with many different types of stone, was home to one of the largest mining clans of the past, one which specialized in masonry and while it didn’t have much magical tomes as the college, it helped give knowledge about masonry techniques to the current masons, which was implemented in some of the newer settlements after it’s unearthing.
As mining expeditions continue to explore the mountain range, they uncover cave systems that can be filled with riches, monsters, or usually both. To be able to safely mine in these areas, dwarves usually send in fighters to clear out these monsters while masons build temporary camps, called mining towns, to be able to properly defend against larger hordes as well as to sleep and to organize the mining and hunter teams. Some mining expeditions are directly ran by the government, which sends out warriors to train against real monsters and to be able to call upon strong enough warriors in the case of emergencies. Other, and truthfully most mining expeditions, are private ventures by the various clans to gain fortune and glory, and while maps of these cave systems are demanded by the various governments that run the dwarves at the time, most of the treasures belong to the dwarves that unearth them.
Dwarves can be prideful in most cases, and the same is true with the dwarves of Drakuth. The clans and governments that inhabit the cities can be stubborn at times, but the clans, and sometimes cities, have specializations that they focus on, such as mining, masonry, fighting, smithing, etc. It is in these ideas that they are very prideful in, and many times they were true to their word, as their focus can bring many dwarves to strive at their craft for decades until they become masters and beyond.
One of the largest and oldest clans that have survived the many falls of dwarven civilization is the Broadstone clan. The Broadstone clan is a warrior’s clan that constantly pushes their warriors to the edge, and they don’t officially graduate their warriors until they have 5 decades of training, a staggering amount of time for humans, and twice as long as other warrior clans. Their dedication to their craft has allowed them to be steadfast when the worst of times come upon them.