A mountaintop kingdom...
Desperate clans below...
An ancient power sleeping
deep within the stone...
The Dûrdn Peaks
Races
Dwarves:
The Loyal Visionaries
- The highest good is progress
- The most progressive person is the one who takes excellent risks
- The most sacred life is the idea
- The most sacred duty is innovation
- The most wicked evil is stagnation
- The most heinous crime is wasted potential
Overview
The dwarves did not intend to withdraw from the world. They were born at the inhospitable base of the Dûrdn Mountain range, but competition for scarce resources with the orc tribes, and constant attacks from both the sea and cave monsters lurking among the jagged coastlines eventually drove the dwarves high up the mountains. In a single surge of monumental courage, the dwarf clans gathered and fought their way up the mountains at the top of the world, determined to find life away from the cruel foothills of Dûrdn. What they found would change Amaura forever.
As the Age of Exploration emerged on the ocean-bound continents below, the dwarves began expeditions of their own. The sky was their sea, and they took to it with a fervor and imagination unprecedented.
Cities
There are several dwarf cities: one on each peak of the Dûrdn range. The structure of each citdadel is always the same. Tall spired buildings of stalwart metal and stone make up the weather-proof abodes that are all gathered around one Citadel - a massive, cathedral-like structures that house the Citadel Lord throughout the year, and the rest of the populace in times of danger. A labyrinth of catacombs hold supplies and food and connect each city to the plateau farms below the cloud layer.
Citadel Borê
Despite what the name might suggest, this marketplace city of the dwarves is anything but boring. The Borê clan did not take to innovation quite like their brethren on the other peaks of Dûrdn. Instead, the dwarves of Borê committed themselves to developing and controlling the commerce between the peaks. Borê became the hub of exchange - both economically and intellectually.
While the city is a bustle of trade throughout the year, the Borê clan host an annual Symposium in which inventors from across the peaks are welcomed to present their new ideas to the greatest minds of their age. There, established inventors may choose to purchase ideas or take on apprentices from the thousands of hopefuls who pack the citadel for a chance to make their name great.
During the Apocalypse of 1624, the Heroes of Amaura restored the dwarves' faith in the "low races" when they saw the heroes' great self-sacrifice and their respect for the mountain people. With allies formed in the N'grinos, the dwarves even allowed for the nations to send them scholars to apprentice at their workshops in N'grinos. After demonstrating their faithfulness to the using technology as a tool and not a weapon, the dwarves - for the first time - invited the citizens of the "low nations" to attend this year's Symposium!
Citadel Akul'Torden
A capital city - if there is one. Akull'Torden is the original dwarf settlement where the hardy race first established their presence on the Dûrdn Spires before the clans dispersed across the mountains. Its chilling architecture resembles the stalagmites of the mountain caves - catacombs that supported the dwarves during their struggle to construct their first city in the frigid wilds of the peaks.
A foreboding monolith, the city of Akul'Torden is unique in that it is fully Citadel. No other buildings surround the great dwarven symbol of survival and sovereignty.
It is here that the Council of Spires meets. Each of the citadel lords makes the journey to the mountain of Akull'Torden by airship, but all must complete the last few miles into the city by foot to pay homage to the great journey their ancestors took before them.
Citadel N'grinôs
The people of N'grinos were never the same after Lord Noldûr.
History
Air
The dwarves, said to be one of the first races to walk Amaura's surface, were also the first to abandon the sea. The peoples of Dûrdn found a
Lightning
Aside from their incredible innovations in air travel, the dwarves are even more infamous for their harnessing of lightning as an energy source. The dwarves are a proud race, but not stupid. Aware of their advantages, they have refused to offer up their methods of lightning collection and air travel to the ravenous gnome companies.
The Lightning Catchers take the skies in their small airships and pilot their craft into active thunderheads to snatch the electricity from the clouds and keep it safe in their ships. All crew members wear suits to protect themselves from the lightning strikes and defend themselves against the battering storm conditions. While ocean-bound Terras go to great pains to avoid tempests, the dwarves charge hungrily into the hearts of these storms - confident in their inventions but also fully insane.
It is rumored that the great Dwarf Lord Noldur was working on a project to revolutionize transportation - a technology to change the world - before he was taken from Dûrdn. Hi research has long been lost in the destruction of his workshop beneath Ngrinos. Curiosity for his lost masterpiece haunts the minds of all Amaura's inventors to this day.
Witness
champions of High Dûrdn
Lord Noldûr of N'grinos
(Born in the year of the Third Age, Died in the year of the Fourth)
The moment the dwarves embrace conventionalism is the moment they will cease to exist. Thus, it was to Pax' great surprise and infinite frustration, that the dwarf champion was revealed to be none other than the incorrigible dwarf lord, Noldûr. Though highly respected for his inventive genius and keen foresight among the dwarf cities, this clever fighter found little respect abroad when he descended form the Dûrdn Peaks to join in the quelling of the Nautilus Crisis. Perhaps it was his stout build, perhaps it was his honest and awful sense of humor, perhaps it was his constant denouncement of Pax every time the man tried to use charisma to glaze over the flaws in his strategies - regardless, Noldûr was quick to build much tension between himself and the haughtier members of the Oceanic 8, while building excellent relationships with the humble, particularly the halfling Vyttía and the gnome scholar - Matthias.
When the heroes emerged from the Sea with the Nautilus Pieces in tow, Noldûr bid his farewells and swiftly departed for Dûrdn with Vyttía. By the time the Oceanic 8 discovered the conniving dwarf had smuggled Shkûrn with him as well, the three compatriots were already halfway home. After saying farewell to Shkûrn, Noldûr ascended the mountains with Vyttía to return to his inventions in his workshop. However, Noldûr's worries were far from over.
One night, dwarf scholars in Dysmiridia sent an urgent message to the Champions in Dûrdn: Matthias had been driven mad by his Nautilus Piece and perished in the moors. Noldûr was not so quick to accept this insanity story and demanded its source. Days later the reply returned: Pax himself was witness to the event. According to the human prince, Matthias had attacked him when Pax suggested the corrupting effects of the Nautilus Pieces. Then, the crazed man raced into the moors and was slaughtered by a pack of werewolves. Now, Pax was setting out with the Oceanic Guard to demand the heroes turn over their Nautilus Pieces to be sealed away on the island of Ëidine. His first stop was to be Dûrdn.
Rather than prepare for Pax' arrival, Noldûr shut himself inside his workshop with Vyttía in a creative frenzy. He would stay locked in his dungeon of inventions for days on end, furiously working to finish... no one knew what. Slowly the rumors began to circulate: the Nautilus Pieces were claiming the minds of Vyttía and Noldûr as well. Reverence for the champions began to give way to fear, so by the time Pax ascend the mountains in the dwarves' air-ships with his contingent of Oceanic Guards, the citizens of Ngrinos were pleading with him to restore their beloved Noldûr.
Amidst the furious thunder and lighting of the tempestuous night, Pax entered Noldûr's stronghold alone. He ordered the dwarves and the Oceanic Guard to wait for him, hoping to avoid violence if he could . The gathered mob of soldiers and civilians waited anxiously in the furious torrents of rain whipping the peaks into a frenzy of ice and lightning.
An ungodly scream as if the sky itself were being torn apart, and a brilliant flash seared the white mountains as a great bolt of lighting struck the great mansion. Stone crumbled and flew into the crowd of onlookers, scattering them in shrieking, slipping droves as they fled the tumbling destruction of the house of Noldûr.
They waited in the cold darkness of their windowed homes, waiting to see who or what would emerge from the slumped maw of what used to their Citadel. Finally, a smear of red seeped out of the house, dragging a crumpled ball of grey and blue and white. Pax the Magnificent, his blood red coat flashed in the rain as he threw the beaten body of Noldûr the dwarf lord onto the ruined stones of the courtyard. Oceanic Guards rushed forward and locked Noldûr in irons. His sheet of white hair fell from his face as they jostled him, and the crowd gasped and wailed. Noldûr looked as if he had been burned with lightning itself. Dwarf healers rushed forward to help, but Pax roared at them to stay back, insisting that he was "in the custody of the Oceanic Guard." Some of the dwarves stepped forward, outraged at Pax' audacity. But Pax simply smoothed his soaked hair back over his head and flashing his warrant for international arrest at the dwarves, ordered his Guard to take the fallen Champion back to their air ship. And the rain pelted the mountains in throngs of ice and lighting.
The entire Dûrdn peaks waited with breathless anticipation for the results of Noldûr's hearing in Stormhenge. Representatives from Ëidine, Sembre, and Dûrdn were all asked to attend and decide the fate of the crazed dwarf. In the end, Noldûr was offered pardon if he would reveal the location of his and Vyttía's Nautilus Pieces - for none had seen the halfling since Noldûr's arrest. But Noldûr, glaring directly at Pax as he spoke only replied,
"My heart and soul belong to the mountain. There be a reason the peaks rise straight from the sea. 'Cause only the cursed scum o' Amaura tred these sodden shores and prickly forests! Cursed be the day ye called upon Dûrdn to come to yer aid! For cursed she became when we answered yer call! I'll not be bested by ye, sniveling brat. My heart and soul are buried in the mountains where they'll stay and where ye can never reach."
Word returned to Dûrdn: Noldûr was executed for crimes against Amaura and her peoples and his body would not be returned to the mountains. Many expected the dwarves to react with fury. Some feared a second war had just begun. But the dwarves chose another path - the path of the elves, of the Seafolk. Deep in their souls, they deeply regretted ever fraternizing with the low-landers, and in their grief they recalled their citizens to the mountains, and destroyed the airship docks at the base of Dûrdn, cutting themselves off from the world forever. They retreated from Amaura in memorial of their fallen friend and hero, Noldûr the Champion of Dûrdn.