Tanwengwar

Tanwengwar is the name given to a clan of dwarves , who refer to themselves simply as "the clan," under the control of the lich Lydredd the Living. The most notable known contact made with them was by the Light Brigade, who discovered them in the ruins of the Gamirian College of Necromancy in late fall of EL 1000. The Brigade found the dwarves of the clan to be heavily propagandized with a warped and manipulative religion presented to them over generations by Lydredd, to them a deity. The main characteristics of this belief system included that Lydredd was the only thing that remained after the Great Shadow, and that the dwarves themselves had been originally made in Lydredd's skeletal image, but given flesh to hold them together because they were not strong enough to exist on their own.
The day-to-day life of the clan was focused entirely on survival and worship, with many art forms and inessential activities having been lost to time. They had a mass of varekan which allowed them to farm, and they kept some animals which they bred carefully, though meat products were not a prominent part of their diets, leading them to be somewhat malnourished.
The clan answered to a high priest who performed all functions essential to this religion in the temple. Every day, this high priest checked the temple to see if a name had appeared engraved on the wall; anyone who was named was sacrificed that day by being shut in the temple overnight. They were always gone by morning, never to be heard from again. Behind the scenes, Lydredd would choose dwarves whose behavior was not conducive to the order of the town, or dwarves who were sickly or "of age," and feed their life forces to her phylactery. She always took dwarves approaching the age of 200, leading the clan to lose all understanding of old age or natural death. She also demanded yearly sacrifices of weapons and armor, which the dwarves of the clan were forbidden from keeping or using themselves, but which she wanted to equip her own guard forces.
The clan was also shielded entirely from the use of magic by the instruction that it was the work of demons, and that any dwarf who came to possess it, by innate talent or even faith, was a demon in disguise. These were to be sacrificed summarily upon discovery. The study of wizardry was altogether unknown to the clan.
Approximately 130 of the 220 members of the clan, including Gruffud, the high priest at the time, agreed to leave the clan with the Light Brigade and Xandra Keita, the latter of whom became their guide and guardian and led them to a safe place in the wilds of Gaulvista, which eventually became the village of Karaadzar. The clan in the mountain, however, still presumably exists.

Type

Underground / Vault