Emberhold

A passage from the Keenstone Quarry in Kraghammer leads below the earth. Deep. Deeper. Until the light of day is entirely gone, and then deeper still. Across chasms miles deep and full of magma, beneath great hanging gardens of glowing malachite, lies the Emberhold. It stares imperiously over the underground kingdom of the duergar, dwarves who long ago broke away from the rule of the Great Houses of Kraghammer.
Millennia beneath the ground have turned the dwarves of Kraghammer into bitter, fearful enemies of their estranged kin. Untold dozens of duergar villages span the glassy lava-plains upon which the Emberhold is built, with mighty armies constantly coming and going, sometimes returning with just a few bloody survivors, other times returning with captives in chains—and other times returning not at all.
The dwarves of the Emberhold rarely rise to the surface; they have lived so long in the darkest depths of the earth that the light of the sun sears their eyes and prickles their skin. Few ever arise even to Kraghammer, for they are taught that only death awaits them there. Nevertheless, many duergar doubt the narrative that has been fed to them since birth and make attempts to escape to the surface. Those duergar who have left the ways of the Emberhold behind and learned of the outside world have remarked how unbelievable itis that their people were so misled by lies about the barbaric cruelty of surface-dwellers.

Demographics

73% dwarves, 15% elves, 12% other races

Government

The Emberhold and the towns that serve as its vassals are ruled by an absolute monarch. The current King of Embers is the wrathful King Thangrul II. He rules through fear and conquest, spreading his armies to the fartherst corners of Tal'Dorei's underground caverns in the name of the Crawling King.
Thangrul's rule is supported by a contigent of dark elves from their decadent, alient domain of Ruhn-Shak. Most in Thangrul's court know well enough to mistrust these ambassadors of the far-flung caverns, for their minds have been twisted by the influence of not just the Spider Queen, but also the aberrations with whom they have made strange alliances in order to sustain their power. Thangrul himself cares little for his advisors' mistrust of his elven allies and openly declares that he will make use of them as long as they are useful.
Vox Machina's assault of the Emberhold over twenty years ago cost the duergar their king and queen, but rumors of a lost princess of Ember have begun to circulate through the reallm, and the survivors of Vox Machina's raid have rebuilt their hierarchy and continued their endless war of conquest throughout the depths.

Geography

The Emberhold itself is a fortress built of black stone and obsidian, framed by rivers of molten rock and surrounded by a massive city of ramshackle dwellings and towers that mark the boundaries of its peoples' domains.

Type

City

Population

21,180

Location under

Cliffkeep Mountains