Miner's Rock

Miner's Rock is almost entirely populated by Dwarves, dominating at all levels of society. Other members of the Goodfolk are tolerated on the island for brief stays (often as part of diplomatic or trade missions), but otherwise their long-term presence in the city is highly restricted (if allowed at all).

Miner's Rock is run by a military council who oversees the city's affairs.

The most prominent local infrastructure within Miner's Rock are its namesake mines. While many of these mines are still see regular use, there remain tens or even hundreds of miles of mineshafts whose ore veins have long since run dry. Some of the closest mines to the citadel itself have gradually been repurposed and taken over by other districts of the city, used as neighborhood thoroughfares or put to other commercial or industrial use, but more still remain long-abandoned and forgotten. The sheer number of mineshafts extending out from the citadel has begun to pose major challenges to further expansion, as the placement of new shafts must be carefully evaluated to avoid causing cave-ins elsewhere.

Miner's Rock operates a small fleet of square-rigged longships, which it uses for fishing, whaling, and the limited and rare military or trade expedition.

Miner's Rock is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, dating its founding to well-before the War in Heaven, playing an important role as a key stronghold in the Dwarven Empire and was highly active in trade and international politics. The war's effects were devastating on the city, as while once it had dominated its own network of client states and dependent strongholds, the cataclysm which resulted in the creation of the Shattered Sea left the city a fragment of its former glory.

Visitors to Miner's Rock are

Miner's Rock is built directly into an ocean seamount rising out of the depths of the Shattered Sea. Relatively unremarkablel and unobtrusive, the seamount is less than a hundred feet above sea-level at its peak and around the size of a tourney field all around. It is covered in bare rock, with the only apparent inhabitants being the few seabirds who nest on the rock and the crustaceans and shellfish who live amongst the rocky beach. A small doorway is carved into a split in the rock, the only entrance to the island, while a short pier, almost beyond notice, extends out beyond the beach to allow visiting ships to dock. Beneath the waves, the seafloor rapidly drops away along the seamount's smooth submerged slope, the depth rapidly increasing from only a few feet deep near the beach and pier to hundreds of feet or even miles just a short distance from shore.

Miner's Rock is located in the center of the ocean near the equator, and as such its climate is generally warm and sunny, though powerful ocean storms occasionally cross over the rock, buffeting it with winds, rain, and surf and forcing the population to shelter in the citadel below ground. Inside the underground city of Miner's Rock itself, temperatures remain consistent but slightly cooler, hovering in the mid sixties, and while not damp the subterranean tunnels are notably humid.

Given its name, it is no surprise that Miner's Rock is perhaps best known for its wealth of mineral resources. Using their network of mine shafts, the dwarves of Miner's Rock are able to extract huge quantities of valuable stone and minerals and precious metals and stones from the otherwise almost untouched deposits beneath the ocean floor. This includes not only crucial deposits of iron ore, but also silver, gold, platinum, and even the highly valued mithril. The networks of mine tunnels are sprawling, expansive, and exceptionally old, with hundreds of miles of tunnel criss-crossing beneath the sea-floor and radiating outwards from the city.   Aside from its mineral wealth, Miner's Rock also makes limited use of the local fisheries, and fresh-caught fish feature heavily in the local diet. Generally, this comes in the form of salted, smoked, or dried fish- most typically small baitfish like anchovies, herring, smelt, or sardines, or squid, but also prominently featuring assorted shellfish foraged or raised on the island itself, and supplemented with larger more traditional game fish for special occasions. The city also relies heavily on natural resources harvested from the local whaling industry, most notably whale oil. This oil is highly prized as a brighter, cleaner, and longer burning fuel source than traditional oil, which is used to fuel the many lamps which illuminate the subterranean city. Additionally, the dwarves work to make use of every part of the whales they harvest, not only using the meat of the whale for food, but repurposing whale bone into beautiful works of art, architecture, and tools.