Harkuldir
Harkuldir is a sub-surface nation in Allethra. It is the home of the Dwarves, who make up the majority of its population. The nation is located within and underneath the Harkuldir Mountains, in a massive system of tunnels and caves that have been carved by the dwarves for millenia.
Contents
Structure
The dwarves once banded together under a monarch who was chosen by a sentient magical artifact known as the Crown of the Mountains. The Crown would choose the most worthy dwarf of the lands to rule. This would often stay within the higher echelons of society, but occasionally the search would last for decades and span the whole country in search of the "most worthy dwarf."
In 197 BE, the Last King of the Dwarves was killed in battle against forces of the underworld. After two decades of searching, the Crown declared that no living dwarf was worthy of ruling. Two years later, in 175 BE, the Crown was stolen in a robbery of the royal palace.
Since then, the most powerful clans have ruled by rotating leaders in 5-year terms.
The Harkuldir government keeps meticulous records of its citizens and visitors to the realm, tracking their movement, magical items, and the like. Outsiders typically balk at this invasion of privacy, but to dwarves, it's simply another part of life.
Culture
The Dwarves of Harkuldir separate themselves into hundreds of clans. When a new dwarf is born, regardless of status, they are forged a clan dagger that symbolizes their citizenship. The forging of the dagger is a ritual stretching back to before the Pliscian Winter, and is believed to only be possible beneath the mountains of the nation. As such, dwarves who are born outside Harkuldir are not considered true citizens of the nation, and have no way of attaining citizenship.
Dwarves value society much higher than the individual. Each dwarf works as a cog in the larger machine of dwarvenkind. The greatest heroes of Harkuldir are those who accomplish some great deed that furthers the clans.
Religion
The Collective is the major dwarven religion. They believe that all dwarven consciousnesses meld together after death, forming a group intelligence that maintains clan identity over the generations. Leading this Collective is Clan Avrum, a family of legendary dwarves who ascended to godhood during the age of the Pliscian Civilization.History
After the Pliscian Winter, the Dwarves, who were once a servant race to the Pliscian Civilization, retreated underground to the remnants of their ancestral homes. They were once thought extinct, as their existence was hinted at in old stories and Pliscian records, but nothing else remained. In actuality, the dwarves had developed a policy of avoiding the surface world, fearful that the Winter still raged.
It wasn't until 481 BE that the dwarves reemerged. When they did, they found themselves within the legal borders of the nation of Allesend. The two nations fought numerous skirmishes among the mountains until a tentative peace was brokered, granting the lands beneath the mountains to the dwarves.
During the rise of the Allesend Empire in 1 AE, Harkuldir was the only nation of Allethra to escape God-Emperor Alles-Taluus' conquering armies. The mountain nation was offered status as a vassal state, but the dwarves declined and no other follow-up was attempted.