Newspire
"The hammers never stop, the songs never end, and the mountains never forgive."
Newspire rises over The Cloudrend Mountains' like a deafening hymn. A city of towers and timber, rope-bridges and roaring fires strung across jagged cliffs like a web spun by a spider of mythic proportions. It is a place that hums, not softly, but in the deep, bone-felt rhythm of iron striking iron and boots upon hollow wood. When the fog rolls low, the whole city seems to float above an abyss, its lanterns and forges glowing through the mist like the beating heart of something old and defiant, the buildings of the lowlands clawing upward from the veil of smoke like they want to drag the upper rungs down with them. To outsiders, it looks precarious, a miracle of architecture that has no right to stand. To the Dwarfish it is proof that beauty can still be built in a world that keeps trying to bury it. But beneath the songs and smoke lies exhaustion. The forges never cool, the ropes never rest, and every laugh carries the echo of an old sorrow. The capital of the Dwarf's Ironclad Republic, a sovereign nation granted to them by men at the end of The Great Schism for their aid in defeating the ancient Elfese who ruled this place; A conflict that nearly destroyed the Dwarfs. Their plight and perseverance through it have granted it a name polished enough to disguise how much of it is held together by labor, blind faith, and stubborn pride in old agreements. Between the singing taverns and the roaring markets, the scent of hot steel mixes with pine tar and sweat, one can almost forget that this city was born from loss. Almost. The higher towers glitter with banners and ale, while the lower decks drown in shadow and soot, where the bridge cables drip with condensation and the workers sing low to keep their courage steady. Newspire is rich in many thinghs, history, unity, but it is no paradise; It is perseverance, hammered into form, daring the world to try and break the Dwarfs again.
Demographics
Newspire is a Dwarfish city through and through, populated almost entirely by Songbeards and their kin. A few Humans and Gnomes live among them, merchants and tinkerers whose skills or stubbornness earned them a place in the mountain’s web. Status in Newspire is not measured in blood or title, but in contribution, those who build, sing, or forge are honored, while idlers find little welcome. Even so, inequality weaves through the bridges. The highest towers gleam with luxury, owned by forge-lords and guild overseers, while the Lowrungs hang heavy with soot, sweat, and song.
Government
Newspire is ruled by the Ironclad Republic, a Dwarfish oligarchy bound by old oaths and newer grudges. The Republic’s council, composed of guild leaders and forge-lords, governs from the Highthane Hold, a tower so tall it disappears into the fog. In theory, every Dwarf may vote in assembly. In truth, the guilds that control iron, timber, and rope control the city itself. The current High Overseer, Baldric Ironbrand, serves as both mediator and symbol, a steady hand guiding a restless people. Yet even he must bow to the weight of the forges and the Cartels that feed them.
Defences
Newspire is a fortress suspended in air and anchored in fire. Its towers are linked by bridges that can be cut with a single axe-stroke, isolating whole districts during invasion. The Ironclad Guard, clad in rune-stitched coats and wielding magick-forged rifles, patrols every bridge and gate. Ballistae line the cliffs, their bolts tipped with alchemical fire. But the greatest threat is not folk, it is Dragons. The Cloudrend skies are thick with their shadows, and so Newforge birthed the Order of the Ashen Scale, a brotherhood of Dwarfish dragon hunters clad in armor forged from slain wyrms and tempered with Forge Spice. Their weaponry is legendary, broad-bladed pikes lined with runic igniters, dragon bone bows that hum in the cold air, and crimson-lensed visors designed to track heat through fog. When a dragon is sighted, signal bells toll through the towers, and the Ashen Scale rise from their aerie like a living storm, wings of smoke and steel. Every tower bears dragon wards, wind-spun chimes laced with silver and copper that ring wildly in the presence of scaled things. Flame-resistant banners hang along the bridges, treated with oil-salts brewed in the Ashen forges. For all their preparation, the Dwarfish know one truth: the mountain belongs to dragons first. Newforge endures only because it sings louder.
Industry & Trade
Newspire is the forge-heart of the north, where ore, timber, and fire are shaped into Everwealth’s most coveted goods. Its industries produce steel of unmatched quality, brasswork so fine it sings in the wind, and rune-threaded weapons that fetch fortunes abroad. The Dwarfish also trade in Forge Spice, an amber powder harvested from deep mineral veins and used by their Mage-Smiths to strengthen alloys and fuel enchantments. Officially, its sale is tightly regulated. Unofficially, The Dwarfish Cartel of the Lowrungs ensure that it never runs out of buyers. The city’s wealth is vast, yet fragile, for food, cloth, and medicine must all be imported across perilous passes from the southern plains.
Infrastructure
Built along the cliffs of the Cloudrend Bowl, Newspire’s entire body is suspended between heaven and stone. Grand wooden towers rise from the cliffsides, their roots buried in stone anchors, their summits crowned with smoke-stacks and glowing braziers. Rope bridges and cable lifts thread between them like veins, carrying workers, beasts, and goods through the city’s vertical labyrinth. Below, a series of pulleys and magickal lifts connect to The Deep Mines, from which ore and minerals are drawn daily. Water is drawn from melt-fed cisterns and guided through heated pipework to warm the lower bridges in winter.
Districts
- The Forgeway - The molten core of Newspire; Hundreds of smithies blazing day and night, hammer echoes audible from the mountain’s rim.
- Highthane Hold - Seat of the Ironclad Republic and heart of political intrigue. Its uppermost chamber houses the Anvil Throne.
- The Rope Markets - A web of suspended stalls and taverns, where traders hawk everything from mountain glass to wind-organs.
- The Lowrungs - The dense, shadowed decks hanging over the abyss. Here the poor live, and the Cartels rule by quiet decree.
- The Cablesong Spire - A cathedral-tall wind harp of tensioned steel cables, its music constant, eerie, and impossible to ignore.
- The Ashen Aerie - Fortress of the Order of the Ashen Scale, its towers bristling with spears and tethered flight harnesses, its walls blackened with dragonfire.
Assets
Newspire’s fortune lies not only in its forges, but in the craft of those who man them. The Emberfall Forges produce alloys unmatched across Gaiatia, and its Runestone Vaults, hidden beneath the city’s oldest tower, guard enchanted heirlooms older than the Schism itself. The Ashen Pits serve as both refinery and punishment, where condemned criminals labor in the refining of volatile Forge Spice. Though condemned publicly, the Republic quietly relies on its yield. Yet above all, the city’s greatest asset is its people, the hammer-hardened Songbeards who can turn grief into labor and labor into art.
Guilds and Factions
- The Dwarfish Cartel - Smugglers and shadow-brokers who control the illegal trade of Forge Spice and enchanted weaponry.
- The Ropewrights’ Guild - Maintains the bridge networks that bind the city, half-engineers, half-musicians, for every line hums with its own pitch.
- The Songbearers - Wandering poet-warriors who carry the city’s history in verse, singing of battles, beasts, and the bridges that hold their people aloft.
History
When the Great Schism shattered the world, the Dwarfish of Kathar fled north beneath a burning sky. Whole clans perished in the march, their halls lost beneath quakes and fire. Those who reached the Cloudrend found no safety, only dragons nesting amid the peaks, feeding on refugees. The survivors, led by Baldric’s ancestor Durak Ashen-Hand, took up arms of scavenged bone and broken steel and struck back. From that desperate war was born Newspire, and the Order of the Ashen Scale. Their first victory came when they brought down the black dragon Graalmuth the Cloud-Eater, whose corpse was used to plate the first bridge. They wore its scales into battle and its ashes into prayer. For centuries, the Order hunted wyrms across the Cloudrend, ensuring no dragon could claim dominion over the Dwarfish skies again. As the Republic grew, their hunters became both protectors and icons, living reminders that Newspire was built not only to endure the mountain, but to challenge it. Even now, when the fog glows red and the bells toll thrice, the people whisper: “The Ashen rise again.”
Points of interest
- The Anvil Throne - Seat of the High Overseer, carved from fused steel and stone.
- The Emberfall Forges - The city’s incandescent heart, where master smiths and mage-wrights work side by side.
- The Ashen Pits - Refinery-prison where volatile minerals and Forge Spice are processed under brutal supervision.
- The Cablesong Spire - Wind-harp tower whose music can be heard for leagues.
- The Ashen Aerie - Command hall of the Order of the Ashen Scale, its armor galleries lined with dragon bones and scales from a hundred kills.
- The Hanging Taverns - Tavern platforms strung across wind gaps; rumor says some were once dragon nests repurposed for ale and song.
- The Windshrines - Bridge-side altars to the Stonemother and the Fallen Kings, each marked by a rusted bell and a half-burnt candle.
Tourism
For all its peril and smoke, Newspire has become something of a pilgrimage site, the last great capital of the Dwarfish, a citadel suspended between myth and machinery. Travelers come from every corner of Everwealth to walk its bridges, to hear the wind sing through its cables, to see with their own eyes how a people carved survival into art. Scholars study the living architecture, where towers sway with the mountain’s breath. Nobles commission dragonsteel trinkets and weapons from the forges of the Ashen Aerie, hoping to return home bearing a fragment of legend. Even poets find themselves drawn to its strange beauty, a city that glows like an ember against the endless fog. Yet for all its grandeur, the illusion of safety fades quickly. Guests soon learn that every bridge tolls a tax, every street a “protection fee” collected by polite men wearing the sigil of the Dwarfish Cartel. The Ironclad Republic calls it civic duty; the locals call it survival. Officials smile too easily, tavern-keepers warn too softly, and guards look the other way for the right coin. The songs and lights may dazzle, but beneath the gold and ale runs the same current that powers the forges, greed, exhaustion, and the quiet dread that nowhere in Everwealth is ever truly safe. Newspire is beautiful, yes, and welcoming in its way. But even here, in the heart of Dwarfish endurance, the mountain still keeps its price.
Architecture
Newforge’s architecture is pure function over form stone-hewn halls, reinforced battlements, and intricate runic engravings that channel heat and ward against collapse. While some ancient Dwarfish artistry remains, much of the city is built for endurance, its beauty found in its sheer permanence.
Geography
The city sits deep in the Cloudrend Mountains, its surface-level structures clinging to the mountainside, while the bulk of the city extends beneath, winding through underground caverns and lava-heated halls. The terrain is treacherous, filled with steep cliffs, deep ravines, and avalanche-prone slopes, making the city nearly impenetrable to invading forces.
Climate
Cold dominates the higher levels, snow and frost covering the peaks year-round, but the deep tunnels maintain a steady warmth from geothermal vents. The forges themselves create pockets of intense heat, making some districts sweltering while others remain bitterly cold.
Natural Resources
Newforge sits atop vast iron, mithril, and gemstone deposits, its mines yielding materials that fuel both its economy and Everwealth’s military. Underground lava vents provide natural heat for smithing, while deep reservoirs supply fresh water. However, food must be imported, and the city relies heavily on Everwealth’s grain and livestock to sustain its population.
Founding Date
3 CA
Alternative Name(s)
'Doorway to the Dwarflands'
Population
80,000 folk.
Inhabitant Demonym
Irons.
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