Dwarfish History
This text was specially prepared for this tome by Frederick Doughty, a Sage at The Imperial Library at Nareth, the Eastern Empire. Doughty is a member of Thomas Newgents research team, a specialist in demi-human races, and most of his career has been spent researching Gnomish (and some Dwarfish) culture.
This document looks at the rise of the Dwarfish civilisation after The Great Disaster, how it became the first of the mortal races to re-establish its society, and how the great delves of today were founded.
How The Great Disaster Affected the Delves
The upheaval in the world during The Great Disaster caused massive destruction in the tunnels and chambers of The Dwarves. Analysis of the delves and the writings of dwarfish scholars show that while the destruction was extensive, it did occur in an instant. The damage seems to have arrived in waves, spread over several days, maybe even several weeks. These pulses of destruction allowed the dwarves to find and prepare shelter - which they did in some of their strongest, most substantial halls, many of which were so well crafted they needed little extra strengthening. While most of the great delves were ruined beyond repair, the quality of the Dwarfish masonry provided enough space to allow dwarves to survive in huge numbers. It would seem that the Dwarves who survived were more numerous than their human counterparts who were exposed to the dangerous environment on the surface of the world. Huddled in pockets of the sturdiest underground caverns seems to have been the safest place to ride out The Disaster.
After the turmoil was over, however, new challenges arose for The Dwarves. What were once intricate, interconnected lively delves were now cut-off halls, many with structural damage, caved in all around by collapsed tunnels and corridors. The job of the dwarfish delvers has never been so desperate as they tried to both tunnel out and tunnel in. Digging parties managed to rescue thousands of their people, and Dwarfish rations in some cases were used to keep underground communities alive for months with no fresh food supply and only underground springs and rivers for water. As the effects of The Great Disaster subsided, the dwarves emerged from their ruined holes to a bleak and barren wilderness.
There was very little of the old delves left which could be re-used, and many dwarves were unhappy at the thought of living in places where so many of their race had suffered and died. The dwarves began looking for sites where the rock was solid and, for a while at least, the Dwarves became a surface-dwelling race; living on hunted or trapped animals and foraged vegetables and fruit. Many clans put aside their political differences, to provide mutual support and protection. This seems to have given the dwarfish race the edge against the tide of orcs and goblins that seemed to pour out from mountains on to the plains.
Eventually, good rock was found, tools were crafted, and new delves were begun.
The First 100 Years
This period was a huge challenge to The Dwarves. They had become temporary surface-dwellers; they were now expert hunters, trappers, fishermen and farmers. But they had longed for their delves as the life of the nomad did not suit them.
Surveying rock for homes takes time - natural caves are sought to start the delve off, and once solid stone is found, digging can commence. This is, however, a slow process. While the humans headed south to the warmest climates, the dwarves grouped in four main regions, three of these were spread across the north, and the fourth at the southern end of the central mountains between where Ticetia and The Carrodian Empire is today. The numbers in these surface groups steadily diminished as suitable caves were found by scouts, and clans separated to attempt to build new homes for themselves.
The first new cuttings were made into the fresh mountains within thirty or forty years of The Great Disaster abating. Digging delves is a long slow process, and often took more than ten years to convert damp dark caves into fully habitable delves. But several new delves were established, some even drew upon existing tunnel works that was discovered as digging continued, but these were few. Dwarves seldom opened old halls if they were found; by the time the new delves were begun these had become the resting places of those who had been trapped during the Disaster.
The slow growth of these homes meant that they were not considered worthy of the name 'delve' until the end of the first century. By this point, the dwarves had homes they could begin to feel proud of once again.
Founding The Major Delves
The Kathron Delve
The re-use of old delves, while being rare, was starting point for the formation of the oldest of the post-disaster great delves. Work started sometime around c200, with The Kathron Delve finally being open in c250. The earliest tunnels were centred on an old set of re-opened halls, which had been discovered while digging in a nearby delve. Unlike other delves that had been discovered, it did not contain the remains of any dwarves or any other race that had suffered in The Great Disaster, and the parts which were still standing had escaped any large structural damage. The decision to re-use these halls and tunnels was taken for expediency at the time, it saved building time, and allowed the local delves to be expanded more quickly. Dwarfish engineers spent a long time inspecting the tunnels and careful work to strengthen them was undertaken, before the widening of the site was commenced to reach out to, and eventually join with other close-by delves.
There were 6 other new delves nearby that had been steadily growing for over a hundred years, to the point where some were now very close indeed. The discovery of this old delve gave the dwarves an opportunity to create a single larger delve which included all these outlying delves, which gave them a new communal focal point. The historic architecture was very popular, something which other delves did not have.
The delves were situated in mountains between what are now Caldonacia and Ticetia, and merging them gave new impetus to the expansion of the delve. They attracted new clans of dwarves from all over the lands, but they soon found that the location was not ideal. Hunting and trapping in the region was poor, and seemed to be getting worse as the delve became larger. There were many lively streams nearby, but fish supplies were limited, and seemed to be falling as they tried to keep this new big community fed. Even the underground fungus, vegetation and rodent farms struggled to pull enough food together.
Eventually, it became clear that unless the food supplies improved, then the delve was just too large to be supported by the surrounding environment. Some clans had taken a unilateral decision to leave and establish delves elsewhere to ease the food pressure on the rest of the clans. But dwarves are a practical people and it was recognised that new delves would be needed to fully support the population size they had attracted here; it was not equitable that some clans should feel forced out by a sense of duty to their kin. Scouts and engineers were sent out into the mountains south of Kathron to find suitable new delve candidates.
Several sites were found, and leaders of Kathron send their finest engineers to convert these quickly into new delves. With better tools and better skills now, new delves were cut more quickly than their post-disaster predecessors; it took three years to make the first of these holes into delves that dwarves could colonise, and the first migrants left in c320. They had not gone far, further south in (what were now known as) the Kathron Mountains, but far enough away to provide better food.
By c360, a dozen new delves had been founded at different places in the Kathron Mountains by engineers from the original delve. During these migrations, the last straggling bands of roaming dwarves in this new region were picked up and invited to help build and eventually live in these new homes.
There was a close bond between these new delves and the original Kathron Delve. Trade was strong between them, and by this time communities of Gnomes had begun living nearby too. As food supplies improved the population size grew, and the delves were widened. The dwarfish standard for currency was set by the Kathron delve in response to this growth in trade, and Kathron coins were first minted c310.
All the Kathron delves went from strength to strength, reaching new heights in dwarfish stonework engineering. During the next 600 years, the separate delves had been slowly expanded to the point where, one by one, they were joined to the main delve. Now the Kathron Delve is spread beneath much of the Kathron mountains.
The Bemiris Khinat Delve
This delve was founded in c310. It already existed in part as two small delves which were very close together. They were suffering and the dwarf numbers inside had been in decline until they were joined by 3 clans in c290 who had left The Kathron Delve to help ease the food problems that were being experience. Five hundred dwarves arriving at these new delves doubled the population, but it created no stress over space; there appeared to be room for everyone. The new arrivals convinced the rulers of the two delves that bringing them together to form one would be mutually beneficial, as they were so close together, and The Bemiris Khinat Delve was founded.
As always seemed to be a problem in this region, food supplies were hard to come by, but these dwarves proved resourceful. The delves were at the northern edge of the mountains between modern day Ticetia and The Carrodian Empire. Right outside the entrance is a huge lake, here the dwarves learned to become fishing experts (with gnomish help) to this helped provide the food supplies for their clans. For dwarves the handling of boats does not come naturally, but they overcame their problems and cast nets out into the lake.
At the same time, digging commenced to bring the two delves together. The new stone-works formed the basis for the Khinat delve, which was slowly expanded deeper into the huge mountain range behind them. Eventually, the delve dug out into the back of the human-owned gold mines to the south of this mountain range. The dwarves did not know when they founded the delve, but it was not far from the historic Kimid-Izila complex.
Even with the fish supplies taken from the lake for food, the delve struggled to expand, and was always much smaller than Kathron, far to the north. It was many years before the food supply became good enough to support a larger delve. The delve survived well and thrived for a time living off these natural resources, and while expansion was not really possible, the dwarves worked tirelessly to improve the quality of their tunnels.
The Gora Delve and The Riviga Kiziph Delve
The Gora and Riviga delves are located to the east of Caldonacia, The Gora Delve is at the southern end of the northern mountains, while The Riviga Kiziph Delve is at the north part of the southern mountain range. The Riviga-Kiziph was established first, but it is not the oldest.
Riviga was probably started c300, and was a new delve opened into an existing but previously unused natural cave system. The dwarves who founded this place were very fortunate, as these mountains were rich in natural minerals which could be smelted easily into copper, iron and precious metals such as silver. This was good news, as rock in these mountains was particularly dense; being strong and hard to work. The expansion of this delve was slow due to the hard work digging through its heavy stone.
The Gora Delve was an old complex discovered by roaming dwarves c320; the old tunnels were not dwarfish, they were much too large. They appeared to be giant in origin, but this was hard to discern. There was no extensive complex left, but the few tunnels and halls proved suitable as a starting point for the delve.
Although in different mountain ranges, the two delves traded openly with each other. There were always good relations between them, and a sharing of skills. Gora expanded the quickest, it's softer rock was much easier to cut tunnels into, and it seemed better for the production of food.
It was fortunate that Gora had expanded well, c400 the delve was attacked by an army of ogres and orcs which were living in the mountain range to the north. The racial hatred between the orcs and dwarves led to some fierce fighting. Dwarfish reinforcements were called up from Riviga, and together the large dwarfish army eventually subdued the orcs after several months of fighting. Many orcs were slain, while the dwarves fared much better - they were using metal armour and metal weapons, all supplied by the mineral-rich Riviga delve. After the assailants had been turned back, the dwarves swept northwards through the mountains, clearing out any trace of orc, goblin or ogre they could find.
Contact Beyond the Delves
By the year 500, The Dwarves had made contact with the human settlements in the south. The dwarves had much that the humans needed, including access to ores and fuels and the skills to work metal. And the humans had supplies of grain and farmed meat, which was in short supply to the dwarves of the north-eastern delves. This was a period of rich trade and expansion for the delves - the humans adopted the dwarfish Kathron Coins, and trade links grew strong.
In 522 the orcs and ogres had re-grouped in the northern mountains and were numerous again. They chose to attack The Gora Delve once more, and coupled that attack with a strategic assault on The Riviga Kiziph Delve at the same time to try and prevent the dwarves joining forces. They miscalculated, however. This time the dwarves were even stronger, the improved food supplies had meant the orcs faced well fed and larger dwarves. Also the dwarves had been honing their weapon making skill for the human settlements to the south. They even had supplies of weapons which were being prepared for export - and these proved extremely useful. The attacks lasted less than a week, and at the end of it, the dwarves went out into both sets of mountains to round up any stragglers who might have survived. Over the next ten years regular patrols were sent out into the mountains, making sure no trace of any orc or ogre existed.
By 550, war had broken out in the southern human kingdoms. While this disturbed the food supplies of the dwarves, it proved to be a massive trading opportunity. They had trade links with all sides, and what had previously been small shipments of high quality arms and armour to the south suddenly turned into large shipments of swords, helmets, shields and breastplates. The dwarves were not selective; they sold arms and armour to all sides freely. The dwarf equipment of war was the finest quality around. Riviga became very wealthy from this trade and honed its weapon-making skills still further.
Delves Invaded
The delve expansion process went on for many years, but gradually slowed as the delves settled down. Digging deeper and further was hampered in 607 when a new section of The Gora Delve opened out unexpectedly into The Underdark. At first the dwarfish engineers did not know what it was they had stumbled over, believing at first to be some pre-disaster delve. They sent scouts out into the tunnels who were surprised when they engaged Duergar and Svirfneblin in the tunnels beyond, and some heavy fighting broke out. Before the dwarves could organise any kind of defence the duergar amassed a force and invaded through the opening.
The delve was caught flat-footed, and was hastily trying to evacuate those who lived there while defending their homes. Eventually enough dwarf warriors were brought in to aid the defence, while engineers tried to close up the hole. This task proved impossible, and the dwarves were forced to retreat back into the upper levels of their delve. They set up proper defences behind their front lines, and pulled all their warriors behind these lines while sending a call for emergency help to the other delves.
The first to respond was, of course, The Riviga Kiziph Delve which is the closest. They send two thousand armed dwarves and fifty engineers, all of whom volunteered for the duty. At first these only helped to support the defensive efforts. The dwarf leaders were planning a major assault when the forces became available, but in the meantime they had to deal with raiding parties of duergar who seemed to be testing the defences that the dwarves had put in place.
The force from The Kathron Delve arrived one month later, they provided an additional seven thousand dwarfish axe specialists and five hundred crossbow troops. They also sent two of their senior military tacticians, who helped organise the plans to recover the delve and defeat the duergar. Four days after the Kathron force arrived, the first wave of assault back down into The Underdark began. The tactic was to attack into and then hold each section of the delve, using engineers to move the defences forward as new territory was gained. The first part of the assault went better than expected; it took only a day to secure the main part of the territory that had been lost, then overnight the duergar were pushed right back to the dwarves original dig site. This, however, was well defended.
The duergar had been busy in the weeks since they arrived in this area. The entrance had been widened, a proper arch build over it, and paving had been used to level the floor. On top of that a wooden stockade and gate had been put across the arch, and there were many troops defending the other side. The toughest fighting seen so far then ensued in this chamber. The dwarves used a combination of assault in large numbers and clerical magic to overpower the dueargar's defence, and it took all day to fight their way through the arch. The duergar scattered and broke, and the dwarf army marched through. Dwarfish engineers quickly moved their defences through to the chamber beyond the arch - this was the new new defensive line. Whatever else the dwarves captured or lost, this arch was to be their final defence; it was the only way between delves.
The dwarves send five thousand fighting troops through that arch; the rout of the duergar helped them enormously here - they had fled far off in to the the tunnels, and the army seized and secured much of this top level of duergar caverns. The army spent several days pushing deeper in the duergar lair; eventually the enemy managed to regroup and form a partial defence, but not until they had lost much territory. The dwarves captured a huge duergar complex, and kept pressing on until they met Drow wizards and sorcerers. This was a new opponent but the dwarves had been ready for this development; indeed, they had been expecting it for several days. Their response was well planned and simple - the army backed off while engineers collapsed tunnels behind them as quickly as they could. The intention was to put half a mile or more of rock rubble between the army and the Drow magic. Not all of this was successful, some engineers were lost in the retreat but when the end of this work was complete there was an awful lot of collapsed rock preventing the duergar and Drow from getting any closer.
More engineering was then needed. The army was disbanded, the soldiers returning to their own delves while the engineers moved in. The back of the lower section of the captured area, where the caverns had been collapsed, was reinforced further with large blocks of rock, before the architecture was worked on. The captured area was to be added to the delve, and so it needed work to make it fit for inhabitation by dwarves. The Gora Delve was expanded by about 20% with this captured area of The Underdark.
Human Expansion in the North
As the wars between human settlements in the south continued, many who lived in those kingdoms were becoming more and more discontent with the political situation and continuous fighting, and many had talked for years about establishing new colonies in the north. These people were in regular contact with the dwarves of all delves, and they helped to encourage people to move. The dwarves offered help to both tame the lands into which the humans would move and to help with some of the building works. Eventually some took this huge step and moved their livelihoods northwards.
The humans had started moving north by the early 600's, with dwarfish help, and began to settle at first in the region now known as south Ticetia. The Bemiris Khinat Delve was the closest delve to these settlements, and began trading with the humans straight away. All was not well, however; food supplies were limited, and the ground was not yielding as much grain as it had in the south. Some blamed the dwarves, who had encouraged them to move in the first place, but the real problem was that the dwarves could not produce enough food for themselves, and had been importing what they could from the south for many long years. The human colonies of the north found it hard to convince the southern kingdoms that trading food north was a good idea; the road was both long and dangerous, soldiers were needed to protect any convoys, and most food producers were unwilling to pay the extra costs of security. The dwarves travelled to the human kingdoms, bought the food they needed, and took it home under their own protection; they were in a much better position than the human colonists, being both closer to the southern kingdoms, and having a well established army which could be used to protect these food supplies.
As the population of the north expanded, through the influx of new people, and natural population growth, the need to trade for the south became stronger and stronger. Eventually, some merchants took the step of hiring mercenaries, and began sending a few large shipments of grain. The dwarves were used for this, because they had been protecting their own food convoys for many years, the human merchants hired dwarves to help protect these shipments. The caravans were a little hit-and-miss at first, some were assaulted by orcs, bugbears and ogres. One convoy even reported trolls on the road between the south and the north.
By the end of the 600's the trade routes were established, and caravans were well protected. Dwarfish skills were bought by the merchants and by the communities of the south to help build a proper road along the now beaten track which the caravans had been using. The dwarves wanted to build a broad paved road, as this route was also used by their own traders, but humans who were paying for the building works wanted something much less costly. A compromise was reached and the dwarves supplied their services and raw materials for cut down price.