The Stone-Shores

City of White Stone and Black Sails
Population: 9,000 (majority dwarven, with a modest enclave of gnomes, humans, and halflings)  

Overview:

  Perched against the crashing waves of the southern coast, The Stone-Shores is the ancestral home of the Stone-Shore Clan, the only known seafaring dwarves across the eastern continents. Hewn into pale white cliffs and reinforced with shimmering granite terraces, the city stands like a wall of white overlooking the black tide. Docks rise on great stone stilts, and wave-battered watchtowers serve as both lighthouse and cannon-spire.   Unlike other dwarves who prize the depth of the mountain, the Stone-Shore Clan seeks depth in the sea. They are artisans of ship-keels and iron-reef plating, sailing squat and brutal vessels powered by wind, oar, and steel wheel. Their warships have turned the tide in more than one naval siege, including the retaking of Reun during the Dragonborn War.  

Culture & Values:

  Stone-Shore dwarves are defined by oath, tide, and keel.   Each child is given a ship name at birth and expected to serve at least one tide-year aboard a family vessel before settling.   Family lineages are carved into driftwood tablets and weathered hulls rather than stone tombs.   Superstition holds that if a dwarf dies inland, their soul will be lost unless their beard is washed in ocean water within a day.  

Trade & Economy:

  Exports: Salt-hardened fish, coral-infused ceramics, compact ballistae, ship-grade bronze nails, wave-tempered rum.   Imports: Hardwood for masts, dwarven grain from inland clans, imported dyes and woven sailcloth.   Known for crafting “Stonewake hulls” uniquely reinforced ship hulls made from stone-laced timber and foam-resistant pitch.  

Military & Navy:

  The Fleet of Twelve Keels is a naval unit sworn to defend the coast, composed of black-sailed warships with reinforced hulls.   Notable for pioneering coastal mortars and harpoon batteries.   While their numbers are few, their tactics are deeply coordinated and ruthless in ambush warfare.  

Landmarks:

  The Brinehold Bastion: The cliff-carved fortress at the city’s highest point, seat of Clan leadership and coastal defence command.   Sailfather’s Chapel: A temple to Karamdrum, an old dwarven sea-spirit, where salt is used in all rites and shipwreck bells toll for the dead.   The Dockbone Market: Where everything from smoked crab claws to forged anchor-chains is sold. Haggling here is a formal ritual.  

Leadership:

  Thrain Stonewake, High Keel of the Clan, is a saltbearded tactician with a tideworn axe and a voice like crashing surf.   Leadership is determined not by vote or bloodline alone, but through trials of navigation, naval strategy, and combat aboard the Maelstrom Gauntlet, a deadly chain of rocky islets used for training.