Brohd Zellor Concept: Mythical

Brohd Zellor as Myth

the Vivid Land of the Dwarves

BROHD ZELLOR AS A SEPARATE PLANE OF EXISTENCE
All of these factors below (the traits of the plane) would go with the IDEA ONE of Brohd Zellor as a different plane of existence, presented below but not used in the MKGAB campaign, opting instead for IDEA TWO (Brohd Zellor as a planet or region in the material plane).
Gravity: Normal, as on material plane
Time: Is eternal, no aging, while here time passes as normal back in the material… Creatures here age as if on material, but show no signs. If they return to the material, they feel the instant effects of time gone (will become instantly 80 years old, e.g.) If they die here, they rise from battle as a ghost, serving a deity or wandering the plane… Eventually to be reborn as a dwarf, somewhere, partially of their choosing
Shape and Size: Potentially infinite, stretching on a slightly curving (over 100’s of miles) and undulating “flat” surface of mountainous Earth Infinite permutations of the dwarven archetypal setting
Magic Normal, but Enhanced for Divine Casters of a Dwarven Deity (+1 to all magic related checks and rolls, DC’s, etc.)
Minor Positive Dominant: Everything is vivid here, all senses enhanced and everything exaggerated in features, closer to their archtypes, etc., although everything but fast-heal becomes more tolerated Colors brighter Fires hotter Scents and tastes richer Sensations more intense Noises louder and more distinct Fast-Heal 2 per minute for all that live here, up to Max hp
Minor Lawful-Dominant Chaotic Creatures get -2 to on all Charisma-based checks, unless chaos is related to the power of a Dwarven Deity
Brohd Zellor is a plane of millions of miles of landscape, millions of permutations--each a little different--of high mountains, rolling rocky hills, clear lakes and rivers, and here and there other landscapes, along with rocky beaches and oceans in places. One could spend many lifetimes walking from mountain to mountain, and never reach the far end of this plane of existence / planet. The Three Mountains, many miles higher and wider than the lower mountains, rise in a kind of “center” of the plane / of the planet, and the Vividness of the Vivid Kingdom is even more intensified here, with a Major Positive Dominant vibe:

BROHD ZELLOR AND THE TIME BEFORE TIME
In Dwarven myth, this is a time of magic and heroism. In the material realm, it is a place from which stories come, and in which the listener can meet the Deities and spend time among them. There are. Dwarven bards whose repertoire is entirely from this time period. All Dwarves in common society hear these stories and know many of the deities. Whether or not they are "real" doesn't seem to matter. It's the inspiration they give, the determination to live up to the various standards of the deities. Only the Clerics, it seems, can directly communicate with these (quasi-)real beings.
In mythical Brohd Zellor, these stories and their characters actually overlay the landscape and culture-scape themselves. Their is a tangible sense of the deities' real-ness; their touch is felt in much that the Dwarven people do. Meeting a god or goddess is a possibility held in common by most of the populace.
There are various stories of a great era of engineering that was part of this time, and many hold that various Dwarven technologies are a gift from that time, given by some forgotten hero or god.  The Dwarves and the Gnomes partnered in peace and collaboration, and verious objects and structures were created, such as the Skulz--the magical watch of Agnaar, or a great various objects of mechanical, military, or recreational use.
In some tales of obscure logic, the Bards tell that the Dwarven race and its mountain homes were created in this Time Before Time, from the forges and caverns of a pre-Dwarven race.

PASSAGES AND PORTALS FROM SUMMER'S TALE to MYTHICAL BROHD ZELLOR
On Summer's. Tale, an extended clan of Dwarves--some 13,000 years ago on the Western Continent, this being long before the migration!), were besieged by a wicked and incredibly powerful race of giants, and there was no hope of survival. Supplies were running low, morale was all but gone. But there was a priest there who had a direct connection to the divine, a “1000-year presence” as the Dwarves say. He continued to preach that the deities’ salvation was coming. And through his prayer, it did. In the very depths of the mountain fortress, with giants finally crashing down the gates and entering to destroy, the portal opened up, and the clan (called the Basalt-Axe clan (in common)) escaped to a new life in Brohd Zellor, where they have survived and evolved to the present. And it turns out that other groups of Dwarven people have entered under similar pretense.
The hole recently exhumed in the Gimli Hills was made by a Kartazzar, a Priest of the Eye, some 400 years ago while the migration east was still in earnest. He and his people (or some of them as it turned out) needed a way to escape an assault of native Hill Giants, and so he quickly opened the hole, the one now found in the temple under the GIant’s Nose. The effort killed him, but his people, luckily, made it through to the safety of Brohd Zellor, if a safe place it can be called.

THE DWARVEN AFTERLIFE

Brohd Zellor is the Divine, Vivid Kingdom of the Dwarves, of Dwarves throughout the multiverse, in whatever system, on whatever planet, they may reside. When they lose their lives, their spirits travel to this plane--a mountainous and hilly land of high snow-capped peaks looking down through hills to lands and lakes and oceans below. Here they may wander as a spirit as long as they want, seeing vivid and amplified versions of their former homes, adventuring incorporeally, and eventually settling among the Three Mountains, where they take a small, pale, bogey-like form (“Darflings” they are called), and “train” for rebirth as a dwarf, taking into their next Dwarven life the traits they will. Under the Three Mountains are great halls, libraries, training rooms, and passageways that are put to use by the Darfling learners. With rare exception, any Dwarf that dies is eventually also reborn as a Dwarf through the powers of the Three Mountains.
So Brohd Zellor serves as the place of the Dwarven afterlife. It is also home to many different houses and clans and groups and communities of dwarven people, who live here as they might live on the material plane.
Every round in the Three Mountains (unless a Darfling or denizen of the Mountains): Save FORT DC15 or be blinded by the Vivid Brilliance of the place (for 10 rounds) Gain fast healing of temporary HP--5 HP per round, but when temp HP is equal to actual HP, save DC20 or explode in a riotous, brilliant explosion of energy

IDEAS MATERIAL AND/OR MYTHICAL

Even Dwarven enemies are given to populate Brohd Zellor, for they are actually essential to the archetypal life of Dwarves. Troll, giants, orcs, dragons, and some ogres, volcano fiends / demons, dragonborn--all of these creatures make Dwarves what they are, and their role as such is very important. They lurk in the caves and walk the mountains and hills, and hold hordes of treasure, in a way that is even more perfectly archetypal than the situation (for example) in the Gimli Mountains.
It exists as a kind of archetypal Dwarven realm. Brohd Zellor is hyper-Dwarven, more Dwarven than Dwarven, vivid like a Dwarven epic story around a hearth-fire.
Brohd Zellor is for the dead, certainly, but just as importantly it is the land of the Dwarven deities who reside there, overseeing not just the reincarnation process but indeed all the processes of Dwarven life and its devotion to them. For as long as Dwarves have walked the material plane, or likely even longer, the Deities have had their divine dwellings in Brohd Zellor, keeping up the process of Dwarven life and civilization.
Each deity has their own realm in the Plane, be it small or million-miles large, over which they have rulership and influence and jurisdiction. These realms, or sub-realms, or often sprinkled amongst each other on the landscape. The different realms each have their own flavor, depending on the deity overseeing its Being.
At current time, there are indeed many sub-races of Dwarves that live materially in the Vivid Kingdom. These groups made it to the plane due to divine magical efforts on the part of their priest or priests. These magic-users were able to open up portals to the vivid land, and groups of dwarven people have passed through, to live out their lives in the new/old environment.
Brohd Zellor is perhaps not “safe,” but it is a place of great adventure and vivid experience, Dwarf-style.

ALIGNMENT in the MYTHICAL BROHD ZELLOR

Brohd Zellor is a plane of existence / material creation built on divine Dwarven law. Things are the way they are; they do not (should not) change fundamentally. Dwarves live a certain way, and anyone trying to take that away is an enemy, to be fought or even killed. There is Dwarven ritual and societal and cultural tradition, and there are traditional enemies of the Dwarven culture, etc. The Lawful nature of Dwarven society is also the same rigid alignment of the Vivid Plane / their material plane.
It should be noted that there are chaotic variations among the dwarves and their deities, but these are generally on the fringe, a necessary “negative” existing for the purpose of balance. They are often looked down upon (both divine and mundane) as odd or of lower caste. Priests of the Eye know, but followers of other deities place these chaotic gods in a definitely different category. (It’s an acknowledged irony of Dwarven religion and cosmology among those of the Eye, that law balances with chaos to create Law.)