Great Fortress of Kiphox

The fortress of Kiphox, to the west of the Coldwind mountains, was conquered by the help of deception from the dwarves and the quarries stripped the mountains of stone to produce the grand stonework and roads of the Grand City of Iyanus itself. The dwarves were not enslaved as the elves and orcs before them due to a legal caveat in Iyanusi law but that did not save them from their own form of hardship. To this day, the dwarves descended of those conquered at Kiphox refuse to acknowledge the name, deeds, ancestry, and all members of the family which betrayed the fortress to the invaders; the worst punishment Dwarvenkind can condemn their own to. And only handed down thrice in history.        The next Emperor, Zerris II, made efforts to rebuild the military that his father left waning. Rich ore deposits were found within Kiphox and large, industrial foundries were constructed to supply the military with new technological advancements such as steel and adamantine plate. It was around this time of expansion that orcish slaves and vagabonds were forming a settlement in the forests and glades along the route between Iyanus and Kiphox. They raided caravans and freed slaves whenever they could and soon carved out a region which a simple but vibrant community swelled into being.        The Dwarves of Daragon issued a formal decree of a grudge war for their birthright: the Great Fortress of Kiphox. For the first time in the two nations history, dwarven and human arms met on the field of combat. So much blood was spilled that it was said the river Kwell turned ruddy all the way to the city of Jathan. At the end of it all though, the mercantile military of Daragon had won their pyrrhic victory and had claimed the fortress for themselves again. In vengeance, they expelled all humans young and old from the fortress which caused the once grand city of Iyanus to swell with impoverished refugees. These people would form the basis of the lower classes till the modern day with many staying to scrape by in the slums or setting out to brave the northern ranges for a chance at a peaceful life away from war and urban poverty. The dwarves immediately set about replacing the exiled with cheap labor from former slaves with orcish and elvish strains of smithing and metalworking competing for grandeur. The great foundries were rebuilt but those who knew many of the formulas were humans themselves. Those who fled to Iyanus were often never heard from again and word was they were being imprisoned or killed for their knowledge and so many fled to the four corners of the world and several traditions of metalworking directly stem from these metalworkers.