Dwarven Lore

Dwarven Sub-Races

Ever since Ronir Kanj'zaal's founding of Galnuog in 1018, the Dwarves have always called Galnuog home. The Dwarves were once a prosperous, and happy race. They inhabited almost all of Galnuog. The only area they dared not go to was the Black Marsh, which is filled with vile and disgusting creatures. But other than that the Dwarves owned all of Galnuog. They owed this to there king, Ronir.

Ronir Kanj'zaal was the fortieth and last generation of Kanj'zaal, the eldest family of the Frel'modi, and thus the most respected. Whatever he said was followed, which was not particularly hard as Ronir did not give that hard orders. Ronir contained a mellow, and happy nature. He did not seem one to boss around, which made some later decisions hard for him.

Once the dwarves settled Galnuog, they took a long period of rest then finally began to establish a variety of underground cities, the main one being "Cal'zanjk" which Kanj'zaal later names as the Dwarf capital. Construction on Cal'zanjk began in 1025, and finished around 1048. Construct on the grand capital lead to harsh moments for the Dwaves, as a Frel'modi noble named Baof Vas'luaf took it upon himself to make sure that construction took as little as possible-although his plans succeeded his plans were poorly executed, as he forced Dwarves to work from dawn to dusk on the project. Many claimed it was like they were slaves to a noble who had little to no right to do this. Kanj'zaal was reported of Vas'luaf's ways by one of his messengers, and happily awarded him the title of Rí (or Viceroy) in 1063. But Baof tended to be too assertive, and often thought the way to end an argument was to have your enemy's head on the floor, this led to problems in the future.

Shortly after Vas'luaf's crowning of Rí, in 1124 the Elves moved to Galnuog. They set up a counsel and took up the majority of the "surface" world as many Dwarves called it. The Psi'kud, a technologically advanced sub-race of dwarf took to the idea to venturing out to meet with the elves, and maybe make friends with them, in 1151 this finally happened. The Psi'kud left their homes and ventured to the surface to face the elves, after discovering that they were in fact very kind, and friendly they constructed some technological pipes and machines for use in the Elven Counsel house, Baof found out and was furious! He rushed to speak with Kanj'zaal about the issue and in 1158, with the agreeement of Kanj'zaal sent for the Counsel house to be destroyed-putting a lot of tension between the Psi'kud and the Frel'modi.

Kanj'zaal grew angerier at the Psi'kud at their increased interest in the Elven ways, so much that he wished to have them banished! In 1165 they were banished from Cal'zanjk and began construct on Vesika, or the Golden City. Around sometime in 1189 Vesika was finished and the Psi'kud were pleased. From their they could keep an eye on the Elves as much as they wanted to-they sent the occasional pair to help them if they needed food or what not but they didn't dare build any more contraptions for the Elves as they didn't feel like having their hard work destroyed by Baof again. But eventually even a keen eye on the Elves brought Baof's wrath upon the Psi'kud-this time worse than before.

Somehow Baof found out of the Psi'kud's relations with the Elves and finally took matters into his own hands. At the beginning of the year 1192 Baof forced the entire Psi'kud sub-race into the ancient dwarven prison Had'xaden-there they were locked up in order to not meddle with Elven affairs. Baof claimed that Vesika was destroyed by a dragon and that the Psi'kud died defending it-which was a lie, for in fact Baof didn't have the slightest idea where Vesika was located. The rest of the Dwarves however, bought into Baof's lies and the Psi'kud eventually faded out of the dwarven lifestyle.

Due to the Psi'kud being the only sub-race of dwarf that talked to them-the Elves also began to think that the Dwarves had died out aswell. As counsel meeting progress, talk of renaming Galnuog to Tamora begin to surface (they know of the name being Galnuog due to tales the Psi'kud told them.) Eventually in 1216 and elf by the name of Halvena Nalmur, presents the idea to rename Galnuog to Tamora, coming from “talmorah” the elvish word for “beauty”. Horvin Fovtel, the Counsel Leader, took great interest in the name and started spreading the news.

News eventually reached Ronir and Baof and both were furious, so furious in fact that they actually left their underground home to travel to the Elven Counsel. Baof convinced Ronir that an act like this could not go unnoticed, he wanted war! After a short period of time Ronir aggreed and sent for a messenger of his to inform Nalmur about their decission. The messenger returned stating that the Elven Leader would love to go to war against the non-existent Dwarves-so started the Galora War.

The war started in 1220 and lasted until 1302-a good 82 years. It was gruesome and bloody. Many Dwaves lost their lives-shortening the Dwarven population even more (it was already shrinking due to high prices and terrible working conditons brought by Baof). In 1232 the Dwaves were doing particularly bad. A Kej'dorun, the last sub-race of dwarf, by the name of Artus De’pher frees the Psi’kud from Had'xaden in hopes of them helping the Dwaves win-in fact they due the exact opposite. After years of being pent up in that miserable prison they are more than ready to get their revenge, so ready in fact that they greet their rescuer with a shiv to the gut (over the years they began making weapons out of the strangest materials in the prison-one being a shiv made out of a tiny piece of metal they found on the ground), then the Psi'kud raced to help the Elves.

The war raged on for a very long time it would probably have lasted much less time if both sides weren't hiding the entire time. It mostly was a game of hide-and-seek, the Elves would hide, a Dwarf would find them, the Dwarf dies, Dwarves get worried and sent more troop over to the Elven area, a fight breaks out, Elves escape, Elves send a person to find Dwarves, and so forth. Eventually things picked up, in 1296. Both sides met up in Kel'dor, a Dwarven city-the only one built on the surface, and neither one fled-or at least not far. The Battle of Kel'dor was the last battle of the Galora War, and easily the most entertaining. The Elves took the upperhand when they sent a skilled warrior by the name of Balem Kaliga to sneak around and murder Ronir Kanj'zaal, while the other Elves staged a battle-the strategy worked, Kanj'zaal lied dead, this sent Baof into a state of sorrow- he left the war and made back to Cal'zanjk-handing victory to the Elves. A few days later Baof recovered and resumed his normal tyrant self.

Baof believed he should become the new Ivor (or King) of Cal'zanjk. But the rest of the dwarves believed that Ronir's son, Galon Sanj'zaal should take throne. Baof was outmatched...and the only way he could be Ivor was to kill Galon. Baof, fell through with his plan, and assassinated Galon, this greatly angered the Psi’kud, who were great supporters of Galon. The Psi’kud started to greatly enhance Vesika and said that it was a much better place than Cal'zanjk-claiming that prices were much cheeper and that the streets were a lot cleaner. The other Dwarves took on to these claims, and Vesika actually drew the other dwarves out of Cal’zanjk, leaving the former capital at a vulnerable point.

Cal’zanjk was deserted, the only dwarves left to live in the city, were Baof and his servants. Both Baof and the Vesikans knew that this presented a weak point in their tyrant leader, and in 1312, the Psi’kud invaded Cal’zanjk. Baof and his men got word just in time in order to leave the city, before the Psi’kud and their army of Iron Golems tore Cal’zanjk to the ground. Baof was said to have fled to a distant place, that is still not known by the Dwarves, and commanded his race from their. He gave an anonymous dwarf the name of Ka’jui, and appointed him with the task of informing Vesika any new dwarven news coming from their Ivor. The sacking of Cal’zanjk angered Baof to the point where taxes soared, and inflation was put on everything, just to inforce the dwarves not to mess with Baof. As a result of this, multiple Dwarves died due to starvation, because they could not afford to buy food. Baof also stated that the Ka’jui could kill anyone who opposed his rule, and also tasked him with the complete extermination of the Psi’kud sub-race. This tactic was very successful, as now only a small handful of Psi’kud remain.

The Kej'dorun, took to completely destroying Vesika, and rebuilding the capital from the ground up- as they feared that a Psi’kud city would only make life harder for themselves. In 1323 the new city Sanj’zaal, in honor of Galon Sanj’zaal, the  trueIvor.

Baof still lives today, and the Dwarves still face starvation, assassination attempts, wars, and high prices. It is a mutual feeling between all Dwarves, that Baof needs to be murdered....mercilessly.

APPEARANCE
Dwarves are usually very short- averaging somewhere around 3'9". They are pudgy chaps who often can be found holding a bottle of ale in hand. Most have an eye color of brown to black, and live to be somewhere around 250.