The Forging of the Dwarves
The Maker returned to the Eternal Forge and created the Dwarves from rock and iron. He quenched their glowing-hot forms in the Trough of Life, and so they were awakened. The Dwarf-Fathers were forged from iron and mithral hewn from the heart of the world, and that the first dwarves were seven in number. Moradin left his seven children with two tools, the Anvil of Songs and the Shaping Hammer, with which they created the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords.
Each of the gods took one of the Dwarves and revealed to them the secrets the Maker had taught them. The first king of the Dwarves, called Frar in the The Complete Book of Dwarves and Silvervein Moradinson in The Book of Artefacts, was given the gift of wisdom and told of the mithral pinnacle upon which the world rested. The dwarves ruled the world alone for a thousand years, spreading across the valleys and mountains of the world.
The god of Evil, who goes unnamed in The Complete Book of Dwarves (as does the Maker), envied the Maker and his creations. In cold and cheerless caverns, the god of Evil created Goblins, hobgoblins, evil Giants, and other monsters. Lacking the pure water of the Trough of Life, the clay he made was tainted with his own impurities, and so his creations were as well. The god of Evil then sowed discontent among the other gods created by the Maker, and a few were persuaded by his twisted words and created races of their own. Thus it was that Elves, Gnomes, Humans and other non-evil intelligent creatures came into being. Though less tainted than the creations of the god of Evil, they lacked the iron that had been forged into every dwarf's soul.
The Dragons, who had apparently been sleeping beneath the world since before it was made, were awakened by the diggings of the lesser races. In a panic, the lesser races appeased their fury by telling them of dwarven gold. The Dwarves had to flee the caverns of the First Dwarves, creating new homes closer to the surface.
In Races of Stone, the other races were created first and the Dwarves were created last. Moradin made each of the races on his forge, but each time he decreed them imperfect, sent them into the world to live as best they could, and begun again. Finally his wife Mya, told him to look within his heart to find the design of the best race. Moradin saw the truth in her words and created a race that resembled himself. These were the Dwarves, the perfect race.
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