The Union of Dwarven Freeholds
A federation of dwarven Freeholds, or cities that live in the underdark and the Mordin's Spine Mountains more commonly known as the foundry land to the Dwarves.
Structure
The basic structure of the Union is that of a federation of freeholds, or settlements run by many unions or collections of specialized workers, crafts peoples, and technocrats. Each freehold has a governing body, a union of leaders, selected for their merit and expertise. Every working member of society works for a union, as they are the only ones permitted to ply their crafts. Above the individual freehold there is the Förbundshall or hall of unions, the body that governs, decides on who makes what, output expected, directing resources, talents of the unions, and what freeholds to open or rebuild. This union of unions is usually made up of chosen representatives of the lower unions making up the many freeholds and has great command over every aspect of the economy and resources of the nation. The Kejsare, often mistranslated as Emperor, is the head of this technocratic board, their job is less about dictating orders but keeping the hall on task and organizing its meetings. They are selected to be the best at managing the hall by the hall itself, and ends up leading the Foreign Affairs Union. Membership to any union is not based on birth, but on merit and perceived skill, any can seek to be brought in as a trainee, however families tend to run in the same union and being from a famed clan of one union can grant you further prestige if you follow into that union.
This would be open to grave corruption as written. Some of this is helped by the Dwarven culture disdain for corrupt brands of selfishness, but its biggest and proudest safeguard is the Thaneförening, or Thanes Union, is a body of investigating judges who seek out evidence of corruption inside the unions or the Hall of Unions. These Thanes which can loosely be translated into Judges, have limitless authority to judge and seek evidence, and their judgements are law in many cases, offering few means of appeal. Joining the Thanes is difficult even for the most prestigious of clans, as spotless records and character are demanded. A Thane is considered the living embodiment of justice, and a Thane caught committing any crime executed. The Thanes are so well respected, many in the world above mistakenly think them nobles or feudal lords instead of office holders.
Culture
Stereotypes of dwarves as grumbling selfish and rich is largely due to misunderstandings of their character and culture. Dwarves are wealthy due to their labour, but horde wealth due to a culture that appreciates the danger of future scarcity. Every freehold keeps vaults of iron, gold, silver, food, tools, gems, all in case of emergency, and when great horrors face a freehold the unions may expend great resources to meet it. However it can be said that these vaults are sometimes over zealous in their paranoid obsessions with hording for trouble, as ruined freeholds are famed for containing vast riches horded to save the city that are already too late. Grumbling nature and the grandiose construction are due in part to a tendency to find imperfect and selfishness in their human neighbors unseemly, meanwhile the larger than life construction Dwarves live in actually provide defense against enemies and earthquakes within the freehold.
As for greed, Dwarves of the union do no actually live off money. The unions provide from above all major needs, and demand in exchange that all do their part. Dwarves provide for the freehold vaults and also are given back from these state warehouses, However, currency called Krona can be earned by working above and beyond what the Union defines as its expectation of you, as many Dwarves do. This currency was developed to allow for trade with Edren, but it has created a second market. Many dwarves produce extra goods to sell for Krona, and Krona, while not used to purchase food, healthcare, clothes, drink, can be instead used to pay for luxuries, fine clothes, paintings and statues, trips and amenities. They can be exchanged for time off and simply act as the machinery for trade with non-union bodies or artists. Some have equated this non pay system to slavery, but others note that the unions provide plenty. none, not the elderly, the disabled, the orphaned, go hungry or unhoused so long as they work to their abilities, whatever ability that is, and what earns Krona is set by what one can do and thus most families have some Krona to spend. Expensive arts, armor, and clothes establish status; less in the sense of greed but more in showing off ones Krona, thus how hard one works and the value they bring to their Union.
Union life is a life of hard work, but stability, plenty, and of communal living. Clans provide family enrichment and direction, as one clans do not legally but culturally point one to their union. Honorable living, giving to the community, and specialized skill is seen as the highlights of ones character. Failing ones community and dishonoring oneself can lead to exile less by law than by social stigma. Protecting ones dignity is of prime importance thus, and ones honor can hold great weight if maintained.
Public Agenda
The unions agenda is to allow the Dwarves to survive under any threat, to keep the wheel of time continue and prevent any world ending disastrous. Dwarves view themselves as bulwarks against evil, and thus the union prioritizes defense of the union and preventing the loss of any more freeholds. Some have also seen a push to reconnect and rebuild the lost freeholds and some unions have formed devoted tot that task.
History
The History of the Union is difficult to parse from the religion and mythology of its people, for they as do we Edren citizens few them as in many ways one and the same. The Dwarves were taken as slaves long before the Elves came to the southern continent. Giants and Goliath ruled them, the Fire Giants especially taking them underground to toil and mine for them and serve in the underdark. The God of the giants in myth put Mordin, a great Dwarven smith to the task of building him an axe that could cut anything, the myth states he agreed, but pleaded for a practice swing when he was done. The All-Father agreed and with his practice swing, Mordin cut the chains that tied his people to the giants. From there Mordin and his kin freed their people from the Giants. History shows them rebelling from the Fire giants during the time of the Old Kingdom, around -1300, there in myth Mordin had ascended, and his kind with the old King of Edren ended the last vestiges of the old Giant chiefdom.
With the giants gone and the Edren empire beginning its first rise, the fortunes of the Dwarves rose with their allies. The height of the Unions power was immense and much of the underdark was full of Dwarven cities: fortresses of impossible size and grandeur marred only by the endless conflicts with the The Taifas. However the The Second Calamity would end this golden age, and to this day the Union after two thousand years is slowly bit by bit, pulling itself back together.
Demography and Population
Due to the dark underground conditions, cramped spaces, and strict econonmic systems, there is limited to no, none Dwarf or Gnomes population. Human visitors come to trade but few can stand to stay too long.
Territories
The free holds keep to rich resource locations, deep mines and mountain halls, as well as undersea fungal forests. The maps of the union are little understood to even the Edren peoples, however entrances can be found under Nova Edren, Old'dren, near Ozerud, and throughout Mordin's Spine Mountains.
Military
The military is mostly formed into two unions, the Mordin's Hammer Union which manages all warriors who fight out of the city on patrol and in distant outposts and fortresses, and is the union who seeks war, and the Mordin's Shield union, which handles the unions whom each defend the separate Freeholds. Dwarves specialize in heavy infantry and short ranged heavy ballistics. Short carbines and grenades' are popular, as well as heavy weapons like heavy crossbows, battle axes, war picks. This is largely due to the tighter cave structures they often fight in where long halberds, longbows, or long barreled muskets would catch and be more trouble than its worth. Dwarves keep no air force as their cave systems lack the need for them, but have developed some airships in rare situations as well as subterranean train systems.
Technological Level
THe Dwarves have existed in the steam age for an comparably long time compared to their contemporaries, limited largely by their enviorment and limited recources. Their train work is still the best in the world, but they could not see how useful a steamship would prove without water, and the unions have in large been hesitent to adopt to automachine as creating by hand is part of worship and the culture and power of many unions.
Religion
Religion in the Union is also seen a a required action of a set group of experts. The Cult of Mordin is a priest unions that keep the old pilgrimage spots and temples where Mordin and his kin, the many dwarven demigods, have their tombs. Dwarves believe in ascendance and spirits as minor godlings. As such their tombs are temples. When heroes die they become spots for pilgrims to seek guidance and build into temples. In a way most graveyards are in a way pantheons. Even the capitol itself surrounds the tomb of their god. Worship is seen less as a giving to god and more a seeking for guidance and direction.
Foreign Relations
The Dwarves have as a key centerpiece of its foreign policy an alliance with The Edren Empire formed before the Empire existed. Originally formed to deal with the Giants that haunted them both, this Alliance became the law of two worlds. The Dwarves would protect from below, Edren from above, together they would defend the world. This alliance has never shaken over two thousand years. Both sides aid whenever the nations would face threat of collapse, usually with technology or funds, and both sides trade with no limitations or tariffs. This alliance is so ingrained, Edren prospectors will inform dwarves so they can mine their discoveries from below, and when Dwarves discover an entrance to the underdark, they seek Edren settlers to live on the surface land they discover.
However they also share enemies. The underdark is a constant push and pull with the The Taifas, a massive network of no mans land like caves between them, even with a cease fire, both are not unwilling to shed blood when they meet.
More positive is their relationship with deep gnomes who like to play middle peoples of the underdark.
Agriculture & Industry
Dwarves import the bulk of their food, though they are known for growing a sort of mold based bread called stone bread that though hard and crackly is dense and nutritious. Mushrooms and underdark wildlife make up other food sources Fungal farms are suprisingly rich in flavor and spices, which dwarves have an endless demand for.
However industry is the heart of dwarven civilization. They produce an obscene amount of mineral and metal value, as well as gems, coal, and quarry rock. Dwarves have always seen success in extremely proficiency in crafts, Gnomish talent for mass production and dwarven fine hand crafts allow for tools, armors, weapons, jewelry, even just alloys of higher quality than almost any other in the world. Dwarven steel alloy is still considered a cut above modern Edren metallurgic standards. This was always seen as a method to prep for harder times, as Freeholds keep wealthy vaults of material for lean years, and the very much required food imports via trade.
Trade & Transport
Most Dwarves trade through rich underdark highways and train rails. Though the union has lost much after the The Second Calamity and old roads are now very dangerous, some are perfectly safe, and a dwarven coal train can manage immense routes and connecting distant freeholds.
Education
Dwarven schooling is handlded through childhood by the Education Union in each freehold. However once in their teens a dwarf is suppose to enter the education specific to their future union. Sigismast's Rest, a city near the Old'dren underdark enterence, has a more traditional upper education college, namely the College of Spirits, which focuses on teaching the unions about history and the greater sciences, and deals in the art of contacting the next life and the minds of their ancestors.
Founding Date
-1719 Estimates
Type
Geopolitical, Technocracy
Capital
Alternative Names
The Union, Undercities
Demonym
Mountain Dwarves
Leader Title
Head of State
Government System
Technocracy
Power Structure
Federation
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Currency
1 Copper Krona (Rectangle shaped coin)
10 Silver Krona
50 Electrum Krona
100 Kold Krona
1000 Platinum Krona
Major Exports
Hard material and dwarven tools and weapons. Dwarven Mushroom Beer is also popular as a sort of novelty. Dwarven spices are also popular somewhat due to their potency. All of that can not compete however with the pure coal and iron exports to the newly coal embracing Edren Empire. Also popular export is the Mercenaries, as the Mercenary union has a professionality that makes them extremly trusted to the above world.
Major Imports
Food for the most part especially meat. Edren beer and Aragonian wine is also highly sought after for its alternate flavors.
Legislative Body
Förbundshall (Hall of Unions)
Judicial Body
Thaneförening (Union of Thanes/Judges)
Official State Religion
Deities
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Comments