Dwarves of Khaz Dugoth

Originally the dwarves lived throughout the deep underworld. The riches of the earth were theirs to harvest and shape. In this world, when anyone uses the term “Golden Age,” they are talking about the underworld hegemony and craftsmanship of the dwarves. The war with the elves destroyed the dwarves’ second founded city, Khaz Kenden, and even the deepest realm was poisoned during underworld battles with the dark elves. It’s not entirely clear that the poison was specifically the dark elves’ fault; most dwarves and elves believe that the poison was released as an unexpected side effect of the war, during a rupture from below. But when peace eventually came between the dwarves and elves, it was drow renegades who were willing to move back into the poisoned deeps and pay the price: their sanity. The dwarves who lived in the deeps had to move closer to the surface. The largest dwarven population now lives under the great mountain Khaz Dugoth. The mountain is honeycombed with tunnels and halls that extend far below it and on all sides. The Dwarf Forgemaster Thorgrist Frostmane rules from the mountain’s center. Of course, a few dwarves are always trying to reclaim the deep underworld. It’s possible to go there, but those who stay too long are driven crazy by the poison. So far the results of these would-be re-conquests have been various hard-pressed settlements and scattered subspecies of insane dwarves. One dramatic consequence of the poisoning of the deep underworld is that living dungeons have more time to gather speed as they rise. In the centuries before the dwarves were forced out of the deep underworld, they took care of most living dungeons before the places could get any momentum. Now living dungeons gather more power and become more dangerous before those closer to the surface notice them. The Dwarves of Khaz Dugoth are proud that they have managed to retain the strength of their home city of Khaz Dugoth. They are staunch allies of The Kingdom of Freebridge and frequently host banquets within the mountains halls for the nobles and royalty of the kingdom. The culture of Khaz Dugoth has remained largely unchanged, as every male dwarf that is coming to age must join the "Coewickrun', a cleasing." The cleansing sends hundreds of dwarven males down into the lowest of the ancient halls to clear any would be intruders out. This occurs once every 25 years.