Eirskjöldr

Overview

Eirskjöldr is the capital and largest city of the Copperkin Empire which sits between the the High Elven Kingdom Aeloria and Pisocenia. For a small fee everyone can travel their borders to get to the other side.

It was build on top of the cliffs in the south, where a crack in the stone has made an entrance to the shores and the waterline. In opposite of Brestængir the city of Eirskjöldr has no ships, but a well defended port for incoming trade and against incoming fleets.

The city itself is roughly eight thousand years younger than Bjarghjarta and was only challenged four times during their time.

History & Age

Radical reorganisation

As said, Eirskjöldr is ~8000 years younger than Bjarghjarta and it started as a small settlement, which in terms of dwarven scales were close to a hundred houses and a huge palace to the appointed Emperor and his Empress, which would serve every Emperor and Empress to come.

The Stonekin dwarves didn't look lightly on the other dwarves and started a war, a surprise attack. Nobody gets to press their southern borders without their bystanding. And Eirskjöldr was a danger they couldn't underestimate, so they came and the city nearly fell. But the Copperkin fought like they never did because they wanted their freedom and their riches. They fought like berserkers and could hold the cities walls and demoralised the incoming troops.

The peace treaty didn't hold for long, but their incoming streams of new coins gave the Copperkin a better standing and when they couldn't raise an army from their own, so they could just hire mercenaries. So the second war against their fellow kin and Garladans - not that they had brokered an alliance, it was just coincidence - was bloody as well, but even the Garladans with their lightmagic couldn't break through the huge wall.

But it was this war where the Copperkin strengthened their defenses and the first ships from all over the world started to land at their new, still small port. They fortified the port with four towers and a lot of scorpions and archers, hidden in the cliffs. The cliffs were hollowed out for supplements, troops and the machines they intend to use.

The scorpions could fire bolts, longer spears, small round stone balls and small explosives. Two large torsion turrets on top of the cliff can fire larger explosives and firebarrels against incoming ships to set sails and wood on fire. Which was needed in the third larger war before the Eirdvergur decided that they needed stronger defenses.

The third war was against Humans, Elves and some Dragonborn because... well, greed is not an honourable trait. The Bog Walker and the Esatini were also involved in this war, but only for a short period of time. The assassins of the Esatini destabilised more forces and leaders than every other armoured unit. The Bog Walkers did what they could do best: using poisons on supplies, people and weapons.

The combined forces brought down the defenses and only with the heroic intervention of some late arriving mercs could prevent the downfall of the Eirdvergur Empire. This resulted in an unstable truce and the first ideas for a new defense were presented to the Emperor and his Empress.

The last war was against Trolls, Giants and some Dragons from the mountains of the Long Neck and the Daveldare Mountains. For the Dragons the goal was the loot gold and gold and rubies and more gold... what a Dragon sometimes does. The Giants and Trolls joined the battlefield because the Dragons promised flesh in various qualities and tastes. Half the city burned in about half a day, the wall shattered in a few hours. The massacre was unbelievable.

The only reason the Copperkins were rescued were the intervention of the Pisocenia citizens. They saw the Dragons and Giants and brought up a lot of their mounted horse riders. A lot of them wore plated armour suits and they tored through the ranks of Giants and Trolls with a reasonable number of losses. The Dwarves themselves pierced three Dragons with an absurd amount of crossbow bolts before the foes retreated. From this point moving forward the Merchant Guilds, the royal house and the Eirdvergur agreed to a common understanding and are working now together since the days of the fourth war. That means fees, taxes, supply routes or joint ventures.

After the Fourth War - as it was called from this point on - the reigning Emperor and the Empress accepted one idea to restructure and reinforce the defenses of the city and therefore shaped the face of the city which we know to this day.

Honourable Blood for Blood

Dwarves have honour. A lot of them. Everyone knows it. If a dwarf makes you a promise, they intend to keep it under all circumstances. Some may sacrifice their lives for the promise. This extends to contractual obligations, even marriages.

If a Dwarf can't keep the given promise, the other party has the right to challenge the other Dwarf. That can be a duel, a board game, a thumb, hair, whatever they want. But that is just the technical part of it. In reality Dwarves only challenge other Dwarves - especially in the Copperkin Empire - when they see an advantage for them or think that they could do better than the opponent.

For this reason Dwarves can send spies, assassins or just warriors. They even challenge each other for bloody duels. This is a more common sighting, but that doesn't mean that there are duels every day.

The problem with sending assassins is, that you - as the assassins contractor - has to announce after the successful kill that you send the assassin. Preferably with the signed contract. But whatever how you do it, you have to step forward and announce yourself as the winner, either in blood or contract.

Venturing forth from here the winner can choose what he wants as a price. Sometimes it is nothing major, like a sword or a shield or maybe something different like the family heirloom (this can cause another duel), but when you do it right, you can overthrow the fellow Dwarf and take over their shop or their business in general. And if the winning Dwarf is a bit more greedy, they can take over the whole family and do whatever they want to do with them. This is the rarest occurence, but it is not so uncommong.

I hereby declare from this day on, the 27th of Terrados in the year 234 AD, that Saldream Coinforge, sixth of his name, second son of a second son, holder of the Sword of Coin, successor in his family line, has won the duel against Normortum the Third by embowlement.

The contract is fulfilled, the winner is Saldream Coinforge and he chooses the family as his rightful winning price. This includes the family heirlooms, the family hoard, the family business of linen and dyes, the former wife of Normortum, the siblings, the elders and children, their armoury, their soldiers and their estates including the houses, built or unbuilt, with all their belongings, inside and outside, open or hidden. This also includes their vaults and those who have knowledge shall present the keys, digits or other opening mechanisms to Saldream, so that he may do with it how he pleases.

That concludes the duel and the differences. May the Father and the Mother be with you all.

"Pssst, what is a Sword of Coin?"
"Exactly that. Well, not... it is a sword forged from molten coins. And it has the pattern of coins."
"Why...?"
"Dwarves. Don't ask me."
"And what happens now?"
"You were here, were you? This Saldream has rightfully won and he now owns the family of Normortum."
"Owns?"
"Like he is the rightful head of the family. He can do whatever he wants with them, even exile or kill them all."
"Would he do that?"
"I don't know, to be honest. From what I know, most Dwarves resign from mass murdering a family and integrate them into their own or vice versa."
"That sounds cruel."
"Only to us."

— Bystanding travelers during a duel

Defenses

Like Bjarghjarta city has a three-layered defense. It is enclosed by three rings of high walls and even higher and really sturdy towers. Every wall is so thick, that six Dwarves could stand next to each other. They have inner support tunnels for troops, armouries and ammunition like crossbow bolts or turret ammunition, be it bolts, stone balls or liquid firebombs.

Every wall is divided in compartments and every compartment can be locked down and flooded with water or oil if necessary. Every tower can hold around twenty Dwarves with crossbows or a large turret for firing... stuff. Those things can launch stone balls, barrels, huge spears, Dwarves, ingots and all things which aren't larger as the common Dwarf. And they can launch stuff over a really long distance. Since the city is built on top of a cliff, incoming armies have a difficult time to march against the sloping land, not to mention possible siege weapons.

But the huge tower turrets can only do so much. If troops surpassed the killing zone and come closer, rendering those deadly machines next to useless, the Dwarves have their crossbows, liquid firebombs, and torsion turrets which can be extended on their mounts so they can fire their bolts perpendicular.

This goes for every wall, the third one the highest with close to twenty meter above ground. Yes, this is tall and parts of the wall aren't finished to this day, but they are operable.

Between the walls the Dwarves errected twelve huge towers with likewise huge crossbows. Their only purpose is to shoot Dragons out of the sky. One of the large, six meters long bolts is enough to wound a Red Dragon, two suffice for the larger Brown Dragons. But there are only twelve of them and a one good attack on one of those renders the tower useless. They can be used as fortresses against attacks from the bottom, but when the crossbow is destroyed or the operating Dwarves dead, the towers are just a huge block of stone.

But even the gates are fortified and armed to the teeth. If anyone tries to attack there, they are presented with a chokepoint which is a death trap.

Eirskjöldr Gates by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Life Supply

The city is supplied from the fields around her and from the few smaller settlements in the closer area. Since Dwarves don't dare to dip their toes into water which is deeper than 150cm, they only have a small supply of fish which is normally reserved for the royal family and a few nobles. Technically everybody could set up a fisher shop and go fishing, but the space is scarce, so there are only a few humans who have set up shop in the cliffs.

Grains of all sort, mushrooms - which is not the Golden Embrace - and goats are the most used ingredients in the diet of the Copperkin Dwarves and so of the city. This includes their milk, their fur, their horns and goat cheese.

Taxes

Of course Dwarves pay taxes. They are submitted to the hoard of the Senate and the Emperors Throne which is independent from the Dwarf sitting on the throne.

• 3% for local food
• 5% for imported food
• 11% on gastronomy food like restaurants or taverns
• 15% on imports
• 16% on exports
• 19% as general taxes (this is the normal tax percentage)
• 21% on luxury items
• 26% on jewelry
• 28% on weapons
• 30% on armour

Like the Stonekin Dwarves and nearly every other Dwarven kin every Dwarf, having a business or not, has to fill out a ledger and keep the recipes from their purchases, food or not. Preferably every page of the ledger has a Bought and a Sold part so the financial controller Dwarf can easier calculate the tax amount the Dwarf in question has to pay.
If one of the recipes was lost or someone manages to loose the ledger or it is missing an entry or something like this, the controlling Dwarf has to estimate the amount the Dwarf (or the Dwarfs family) has consumed, bought and sold during the year based on the last five years. Which is the least favourable outcome because most of the time the estimated guess is a lot higher than the real amount the Dwarf has to pay. So it is in both interests that the ledgers are neatly filled and tracked.

Koria

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Map of the megaproject Koria.