Khazâdgâlâkha

Khazâdgâlâkha, the "home of the Dwarvirim," is a semi-mythical underground city, supposedly the place from whence come all of the Dwarvirim living on Derkomai.   Said to lie in the far north, the entrance hidden at the base of a cliff in a deep valley of the Great Western Mountains near the border of Danyund and Nodyund, no one today knows exactly where Khazâdgâlâkha is, or even if it actually exists. Even the few Dwarvirim that live in or near Humans either don't know or won't say.   There are myths and stories that tell of a great war among the Dwarvirim in the distant past, before even The Fall from the Stars, when the great Dwarvirim chieftains could not agree on a course of action to counter the growing threat from the Orkrim. The chieftains fell to bickering and then to blows, and finally, to an all out civil war between the Dwarvirim clans. Finally, a truce was declared. A peace treaty was hammered out and blood oaths taken, ending the war. But by that time, the fate of the Dwarvirim was sealed. Weakened by their internal divisions and strife, the Dwarvirim towns and villages of the region fell, one after another, to the brutal onslaught of their mortal Orkrim enemies. Many of the Dwarvirim fled, finding new homes in the mountains further south and even far to the east. At last, only Khazâdgâlâkha remained. Some of the stories say that the great Dwarvirim finally fell to the Orkrim, and that it now lies abandoned and forgotten, haunted by spirits and ghosts of the fallen, and home to fell Daemorim and horrific beasts. Other stories say that Khazâdgâlâkha still holds, its secret halls home still to the True Dwarvirim that shun all contact with the outside, amassing wealth beyond measure. Which of these stories is true, if any, no one knows.