Dur Guldum

Three monarchs together rule the city and control a vast area of the surrounding Underdark much as a king of the surface lays claim to the farmland around his city. The Triad of the Deep, as they are called, are the supreme authority in the kingdom (the city is, indeed, a kingdom), and all decisions of law and religion are made by them and cannot be challenged. Each of the three monarchs hails from a noble and ancient family, each descended from one of the founding families of legend.   Firstly, there is Dana Ironfoot, matriarch of clan Buutur'un. She is hot tempered, and quick to take offence at the smallest slight. Her gaze unnerves even the stoutest of heart, and her dark red eyes seem devoid of any spirit or compassion. However, she cares deeply for her subjects and feels a strong tie to the lore of the city, keenly aware of the rich history which has led to her sitting on the throne. She senses the influence of her forebears in all aspects of life in the city, and often walks among the people to better understand them and what they need of their queen.   Secondly, there is Uthun Hammerhand, who, as his moniker suggests, actually has had one hand replaced with a hammer. Of course, the hammer is of the finest craftsmanship and can actually turn into a normal, though metal, hand (a testament to the skill of the craftsmen of Dur Guldum). Uthun represents clan Nori, the oldest of the three clans, though he himself is youngest of the Triad. Legend has it that his hand was lost in defense of the city against encroaching underdrakes, giant wingless dragons that live in the Underdark. He is a great craftsman and patron of the arts. His handiwork is well known throughout the kingdom, and he gives many gifts to those loyal to his cause. He is inquisitive, and is one of the only duergar who actively seeks material goods from the outside world to study their make and composition.   Lastly, but not least at all, is Korin the Justicar. He bears this title as all of his kingly ancestors have, and is chiefly responsible for the dispensation of justice throughout the kingdom and among foreigners treating with or traveling in Dur Guldum. Representing the Guzbuul clan, Korin's strength is his cunning. He knows every law in the kingdom by memory and can name every loophole, though he does not take kindly to those who use them. Korin believes that though there may be technical loopholes within the words of the law, the true meaning of them is well known, and will severely punish any seeking to take advantage of the shortcomings of the written word.   Though the Triad has the only true authority to act in the name of the city, they are advised by the Elder Council. This council, as its name suggests, is made up of the ten oldest members of each ancient house, regardless of sex. Also named the Triadic Council, or the Council of Thirty, members spend their days attending ceremonies, overseeing important city works, and arguing over law and theology. They will advise the Triad only when called upon, not of their own volition, but the Triad calls often, as the council is well-respected by the royals and citizenry alike. Because councilors are drawn from the oldest living among the duergar (presently, the youngest is 296), they are considered to be among the most learned and wise of those living in the kingdom, and the members of the Triad, who are often much younger, look to them to provide a perspective grounded in history and purported wisdom.   To supplement the Triadic Council, a body of regular citizens, named the Dur Hazboth (roughly: City Priests), are elected to attend all of the minor religious ceremonies that cannot be tended to by the councilors. They also act as what we may consider "parish priests" or "bishops," and serve the common people in the name of the gods. To each of the city's seventeen districts, two-hundred and eighty-nine Hazbothe (pl. Hazboth, the e is indeed pronounced as a breathy tone) are assigned, this number being the square of seventeen, a holy number. These Hazbothe regularly perform blessings of duergar, foodstuffs, like mushroom crops, and of events and other such things that need to have the blessings of the gods. They also serve to lead in the celebration of divine holidays, the reading of omens, and the preparation of duergar dead for burial. The Hazbothe are entrusted by the Triad with keeping the gods, and the city, happy, and ensuring that no evil befalls the city on account of angry divines.

Metalworking is the heart and soul of the export industry in Dur Guldum. Everything from household silverware (specially designed for each race) to intricate ceremonial (and battle) cannons is manufactured in Dur Guldum, if there is a demand for it. The duergar smiths are especially well known for only using the highest quality steel in all of their creations, no matter how small, and it is said that the duergar god of the smithy himself blesses each individual item, and that to break such an item is sacrilege of the highest degree, though impossible.   Dur Guldum also specializes in the export of magically-imbued items, forged of yllurian-steel. It is thought by many of the mining magnates of the surface world that there must be a large yllurian deposit near the city, or else the flow of yllurian out of the city would be much, much smaller, but it is possible that the duergar smiths know ancient crafting secrets lost to those on the surface. Umbor is another highly-sought-after substance that seems to flow freely from the city. The dark dwarves of Dur Guldum seem to have a special aptitude for purifying the umbor and activating it fully, and most who can afford it will only order umbor relics from these skilled smiths.

The foundation of Dur Guldum is shrouded in legend, and the exact age of the city is unknown, though it most certainly predates the Cataclysm by at least several hundred years. As the popular legend goes, there were once three travellers of the duergar race -- exiled from their dwarven home in what was once Vashyl Major. Their exile was brought about by surface dwarven jealousy of their skill, as they were the only duergar on the whole continent at the time. And so they set off to find a new home, each day praying for direction or a sign to stop and found a new home. They travelled for many days and many nights, stopping only to nibble away at what little food they had brought with them, and to briefly sleep before continuing on. After an arduous trek, they finally came upon a spot, now called the Delving Stair, where they found a spring of clear water, five deer, unafraid of them, six beautiful gemstones, perfectly cut, and five burning bowls of incense. It was a sign, left by the gods themselves, and these were named the seventeen gifts. After sacrificing the deer and having a bountiful feast, the three began working at building a new home, deep, deep in the earth, where they would be pestered by none. And so they dug, and dug, and dug for many days, and this site we now call the Delving Stair. Yet again, a sign from the gods stopped them when they found a small settlement, dying out, of their own kind. Never before had the three laid eyes upon their own kin, and were long suspected of being the only duergar made by the gods. And then in this cavern they began to build the city that would be called Dur Guldum. Seventeen sections were built, one for each of the gifts given by the gods to the three, who ruled as the first Triad. The Crystal Spring was lowered into the city proper, where its beautiful and clear waters lay to this very day. The bowls of incense are split between the four large temples of the city and the palace, where they continue to burn incense, and will, until the duergar die out. As for the gemstones, two each were inlaid into fine crowns of yllurian-wreathed crowns, and given to each member of the Triad.   Supposedly, the enlightened reign of the first Triad lasted for hundreds of years before each died peacefully, their task completed. However, the first real glimpse into the history of Dur Guldum that we have today is from just after the Morlu Cataclysm. There is, within the vaults of the royal library, an ancient scroll detailing the "great rumblings of the earth" that is dated to around the time we suspect the Cataclysm occurred. Interestingly, the scroll says nothing of the destruction of Vashyl Major, which the city was once supposedly at the north-eastern tip of. There is strong evidence to suggest that at one point there was at least some land-bound trade coming in and out of the city, suggesting connection to a continent or other large landmass, but there are no primary sources to corroborate this evidence, and there is little lore even in the city today of the once great continent. The duergar of the city, who never took much interest in the affairs of surface dwellers that we know of, knew little of the Morlu War (or little cared), but the fact that they were around to record the supposed shockwaves of the collapse suggests that the city has existed for much longer than the current age has lasted. The most conservative estimates say that the city must have existed at least by -275 AC, with most historians agreeing that -600 AC is a much more likely number.   Following the Morlu Cataclysm, little is known about the doings of the city, as the formal recording of the city's history did not begin until 273 AC. By that time, the great forges were constructed, or at least most of the way done, the three Delving Stones had been erected, and all of the seventeen sections of the city were completed (as far as dwarven and duergar crafts can get anyway -- they never truly stop expanding). Our account of the city's history begins in 273 AC when it appears that Burad the Deepdelver commanded that the scribes of the city begin recording certain deeds of the Triad and the Triadic Council. Though by no means a complete picture, as exactly what to record wasn't yet agreed upon, we can construct a fairly decent picture of the history of the kingdom that gets progressively clearer as we approach the present.   Around 273 AC, the duergar made first contact with the Hamjii of Eboras and Elgarse and began construction of the small port on the south-west tip of the Lonely Isle, just to the west of the city. It seems that a growing duergar population in the city had outpaced the production capacity of food, and the need for more necessitated trade between neighbors, seeing as duergar are not much for surface conquest. Because there was no common coinage at the time, the duergar elected to trade their fine metal crafts for equal value in grain, thus beginning the great metal trade that sustains the city to this very day. There are hundreds of thousands of mercantile ledgers from this age, and from them we can see that the works of the duergar spread slowly from those two initial partners throughout the Thousand Isles, creating supply chains with more customers than the duergar needed for survival. As a result, they began trading not just for food, but for amenities, and the fine crafts of other peoples, as well as more luxurious foodstuffs that were otherwise difficult to obtain for the duergar (deer was an especially vaunted feast, and is often served at royal banquets to this day). News of the city slowly marched westward across Iboaea, eventually reaching what would become the Leutran Kingdom, and subsequently spreading to what corners of the realm hadn't yet heard of them. This phase of the city's history is often referred to as its first "honeymoon" period where significant changes to the lifestyle of the duergar in the city improved the quality of life and wealth of the city greatly, with few averse consequences (a benefit of living where no one else wants to, I suppose).   This first "honeymoon" began in the early 300's AC, but really took off during the "First Contact" period of Thousand Isles history, when both the Noles and the Leutrans commissioned weapons to be made for their war on each other. The duergar, ever the crafty folk, made sure that neither side knew that the other was getting anything other than the normal metal goods, and so both continued to buy weaponry from the same supplier, enriching the coffers of the city to a point that was hitherto unheard of. It was said of this time that every single citizen of the city, from peasant to lord, could afford a whole deer, the kettle to cook it, and the seasoning to flavor it. Eventually the war ended, but it was one of the many raging throughout the Thousand Isles. By this time, circa 600 AC, the weapons of Dur Guldum had garnered a reputation as being those of kings, and everyone wanted them. The city rode high on the weapons sales until everything came briefly crashing down, literally, in 641.   641 is a year that few in the Thousand Isles remember. The Juje had not yet risen, the hamjii were still fighting over land, as they always had, and the duergar were shipping metalworks to every corner of their known world. The city was at peace, and was enjoying its newfound wealth and reputation, steadily growing in each. If Dur Guldum was a bucket of beautiful still water, then the earth-shaking of that year was the foot that kicked it over. There had, of course, been many earth-shakings before then, but none remotely compared to the magnitude of the earth-rumble of 641. In fact, it was so strong that even the shakes that followed it, which are always smaller, were beyond the magnitude of those in years past. Six sections of the city were totally destroyed, and thousands of duergar were killed. Royal estimates put the numbers at 3,023 dead, 25,641 wounded, and 321 missing presumed dead. To the duergar, this was the greatest tragedy to befall their people since the exile of the first Triad. To the surface-dwellers above, it was a year of a few tsunamis that destroyed much property, but little else -- an annoyance at best. The blame was laid on the ancient architecture of the city, which had degraded over time and simply could not withstand such a great earth-shaking. For a time, many of the forges were closed, and there was no trade to any outside of the city since all remaining forges were repurposed for the rebuilding project.   During the next century, from 641 to 753 AC, the focus of the city was wholly focused on rebuilding, reinforcing, and restoring the city in an even greater state than it had previously been. The coffers of the royal treasury slowly drained to fund this effort, and the denizens of the city returned to the lives they had known before the first honeymoon brought unprecedented wealth to them. It was during this period, while the living standards of citizens declined, that the greatest art, metal, and stonework were crafted. The era was one of duality -- the impoverished lived in tents and huts of broken rubble beside the great earthworks that took the place of their former homes. The Triad and their councillors feasted on deer while the citizenry had naught but the poorest mushrooms.   It was only upon Durbad the Old's ascension to the throne on the behalf of the Buutur'un that the fortunes of the city finally began to turn. He saw, rightly, that the desolation of the city was due not to the earth shaking, but to the withdrawal from the lucrative trade deals that had sustained the city in years past. In 754, some months after his ascension, he established contact with what was by then the Jujii Empire (also known as the Empire of Pelisarians). By the 750s, Juje was at its influential height, and thusly placed orders for as much metalwork as the city of Dur Guldum could put out. These works were to be used for shrines, idols, tools, and special embroidered livery for fishfolk priests. So it was that, by what seemed luck, that the city entered into its "Second Honeymoon," which continues to this day.   After the passing of the Jujii Empire into ruin, the duergar had to look elsewhere for trade, as the Thousand Isles devolved into piracy and anarchy (some call it a return to the Hamjii period). Fortunately for the duergar, the rising mercantile power of Jin-El Aethis had spread tidings of Dur Guldum from Nörn to the Southern Draconic Empire, and new markets were not hard to find. Once the first trade treatises were signed in 806 AC with Jin-El Aethis, and in 835 AC with the Southern Draconic Empire, the fortunes of the city were secure, and feasts of deer flowed in once more.