Dawn of the Dwarves

Prelude

The middle period of the Bronze Age saw the destruction and exile of dwarven civilization to the depths of the earth . This was due mostly to wars between two expanding powers; the elves and the dwarves themselves, as well as climate change.

This period of destruction lasted between the years 5000 to 2700 BP and spanned both continents, Teria and Karia. Some catalogue this as a genocide, although it is disputed if the elves wanted to systematically wipe out the whole dwarven population. What is true is that the fights between elves and dwarves play an important part in elven mythology and folk stories; epic sagas and poems had been composed singing about the heroic deeds of the elven heroes against the treacherous and greedy dwarves.

For the dwarves this, of course, constitutes a tragedy, the end of the golden age and splendour of their civilization, the collapse of the great dwarven kingdoms and Empires and their exile to the depths of mountains and caves, only maintaining diplomatic relations with other dwarves and switching from the elves to orcs and goblins as enemies. This situation lasted for over 3000 years, some 15 dwarven generations, until the year 695 AP when the first dwarves of Teria began to emerge from the surface, both tired of their reclusion into the depths of the earth and eager to know the world and trade with other peoples. The Dawn of the Dwarves had just begun.

Causes

The causes for the re-emerging of the dwarves are economical as well as social and religious. For thousands of years, dwarves could only trade their jewels and beautifully crafted and forged objects with other dwarves, and, as these economic relations were very limited, the economy of the dwarven communities began to stagnate. And many dwarven merchants and aristocrats began expressing their concern and began to pressure the dwarf kings, princes and republics to take the step of surfacing again.

Socially, the dwarven communities were running out of space to found new settlements without having to cross the surface. They knew from the old dwarven texts that the mountains of Western Teria were rich in minerals such as gold, diamonds and silver, so, in order to travel there, they need to go to open the magical doors of their settlements and travel across dangerous lands populated by gods know what races, that perhaps wanted to kill them, but they were willing to take the risk for the sake of the dwarf's future.

Religiously, most of the dwarves of Teria had been influenced by a series of 7 Prophet-Kings, the last of which, called Ymyr Nagak'tun, prophesized that:

"The People of the Hammer (The Dwarves) must see the light of the sun, fight its greatest fear, and go to the peoples with golden heart, they will teach them about the wonders of the outside world, and moved by the power of fire, and their will, they shall see a new light, unseen since the Old times, and brighter than the Stars."

This renown faith is one of the causes of the new expansion of the dwarves. But who were these Prophet-Kings? As it has been said, the dwarves talk about 7 Prophet Kings, that, in the span of 3000 years, since their forced exile, they prophesized about the future of the dwarves, reassuring them in difficult times, and also reassuring the faith in their gods. The first of such Prophets; King Andabad of the kingdom of Nur Roth, who lived around 2600 BP, he is worshiped as a kind of demigod by the dwarves. He taught the dwarves how to forge steel weapons and how to craft mithril objects. This revelation is said to have inspired by the goddess of Fire.

The second prophet of the dwarves was Jagrer Ingotarm from the Kingdom of Eith Ambrakathun who is credited for being the one who compilated the Sacred Texts into one book called the "Darmath Brak" or Book of the Revelation. He then spread the message of the gods of the forge and fire through the mines and the caves of Central Teria.

His successor, the Prophet King Alborg II was taught the ways of magic by the gods of the forge and the fire and the goddess of the plants "Emys Sweak". He continued the preaching of its predecessor, reaching the Western Chain in the lands of what would become many millennia later, the Kingdom of Wesdaland. He is known among the dwarves as the "Laith Enbradun" the Enlighten Dwarf and worshiped as a demi-god by the dwarves of Western Teria.

The Fourth Great Prophet King was Brutdrorli IV, who lived around 1900 BP in the mountains west of Oronia. He was a great leader to his people, the dwarfs that formed the kingdom of Myndath, he fought countless orcs that had claimed the caves and mines inside these mountains since the times of the so called "Elven Heroes". He personally slain king Bourg of the Bel 'Or orcs and it is said to have ordered the creation of a helmet entirely made of mithril. When he got old he started to receive visions from the gods, prophesizing that:

One day, the people of the Sun will claim the lands of the valley, and that for the time being the dwarves should not interfere or have any sort of contact with them, as the gods have told them that this people should once be given a mission".

The Fifth great Prophet was Dwormulir Ingotbeard, who lived in the same region, a couple of centuries later. He warned his fellow dwarves not to go to the mountains of great white peaks, because the time hadn't come yet and because great perils awaited to everyone that dared to cross the imposing mountains, even digging tunnels and mines there. Probably he had received also some prophesy about the future of the regions South and East of the Albine Mountains, of great civilizations and Empires rising, but not by the hand of dwarves, but by "Children of other gods". And also, by great perils he probably mean the Snow Elves, that, but that time had already established his kingdom and civilization in the caves in a similar way to the dwarfs.

The sixth Prophet was a dwarven girl, called Arha, Queen of the kingdom of Astraith. She lived around 210 BP, and he indicated that the time has come to establish in the mountains west of the Hand of the Gods, but that the dwarves shall not pass the great Buthûn gallery, because there the power of the White Sun will destroy them (this probably relates to some of her visions about, most probably, the artificial sun of the Snow elves). The capital of the Kingdom of Asheak bears her name in her honour and the kings there proudly said that they descend from this famous Prophet Queen. And lastly, we have the seventh Prophet, the aforementioned Ymyr Nagak'tun who prophesized about the return of the dwarfs to the surface.

The Return to the Surface

In 695 AP, the dwarfs from the Kingdom of Astraith decided to take the risk and go to the surface, or at least make contact with another civilization. Sadly, for them the way to the surface was full of perils, namely bears, orcs, and one snow dragon that almost killed the entire party. So they decided to just go around to one of the galleries west of their mines, they went straight until they came in front of an strange magical barrier when they got surrounded by tall people with pointy ears, to their surprise, they were as confused as they were, and suddenly pronounced the word "Laythyn" which was similar to their word Laith, meaning dwarf, one of them had read stories of the elves and how many of their names ended in "yn", so yes, this creatures might be elves (bear in mind dwarves haven't seen elves for 3000 years, and most of the tales about them described them as goblin like, tall, bloodthirsty creatures .

After staring at each other for a while, and seeing that any of the parties was going to kill each other, fear gave way to curiosity, and both parties made a campfire and began exchanging objects. Of course, the Snow elves didn't know dwarf, neither the dwarfs knew classical elvish. So they were talking to each other with signs, they shared a couple of drinks and both of these peoples realized that the other was not as bad as the tales said. In the end the dwarfs gifted the elves a fibula made of mithril and the elves gave gifted them a knife with a richly carved and decorated ivory handle and a diadem made of bronze. After this, both sides returned the way they had come. When the dwarfs arrived to their cave settlements news about the encounter with the elves spread like wildfire, for the first time in 3000 years the dwarfs had made contact with another intelligent specie, their old nemesis that seemed quite friendly. A couple of months later, the dwarves sent another party and this time, they brought a translator with them, who had some knowledge of elvish (or that was what they thought).

two dwarf diplomats by Midjourney

They arrived at the magical door and again were stopped by an elven party, this time, the dwarves were ordered to stay there and then, the door opened and several very well-dressed elves met them at the entrance. One of them seemed the king, and the translator stepped forward to speak to him. They made the customary reverences and both people sit the translator began to talk but to his surprised the elves only understood a few words and a few sentences of what he was speaking.

Turned about that this dwarf had studied that language of the elves at the moment of their exile to the caves, that was an early version of classical elvish, so the Snow elves had a bit of trouble understanding this very archaic form of their native language. In the end, both parties managed to understand each other and basically what the Snow elf King said to the dwarves was something like: " Look, we know what happened in the past between your ancestors and ours, but that was a long time ago and we've nothing to do with it, time has passed, we even managed to become friends with the humans to the South, we help each other, so what if we start again and began trading and being friends?". So the dwarves liked the idea, and promised the king that in 3 months they would return with the decision of their king and their council.

Impressed by the statements of the Snow Elf King, king Orbomyr of Astraith agreed and sent a letter of friendship to king Elythiel of the Snow elves. The dwarves were allowed even to enter the Snow elf cities like the Blatian humans and trade in them their goods, which brought a new prosperity for both realms. The dwarves were impressed by the technology of their elven neighbours and in turn the elves were curious and amazed by the quality of dwarven craftmanship. Through the Snow Elves, the dwarves learned about the history of Teria (in the surface) during these 3000 years as well as the most powerfull countries of the continent, who, probably will be willing to receive them, at least the civilized ones, and began trading with them.

In 699 AP, the dwarf embassy travelled with a Snow Elf delegation to Murnum, capital of the blatian Empire of Cloudia, where they were received quite to the astonishment of the Cloudian Court. Cloudia too opened their markets to the dwarfs, followed by Blati two years later, a city that impressed the dwarves in such a way that one of them exclaimed that "The whole race of the dwarves could live in this city and there would even be room left over". Blati became known as Riksgarad (The city of the Emperor) or Mohnigarad (The great city). The same delegation reached Oronia a year later, and also visited the fellow dwarves from the kingdom of Myndath who also sent emissaries to the Oronai kings asking for their friendship and trade rights.

In the far west things were not as smoothly as in the East of the continent. Here the constant instability due to migrations and conflicts between nomadic and sedentary peoples made the few dwarves that lived there to consider that it was quite unsafe to go to the surface. As the area became more peaceful the dwarves began to emerge again and began travelling to places like Wesdaland or Witharfia. In 743 AP, the dwarves of Enas Thulûn, in the Western Chain, learned that they were located in the middle of a human kingdom, Wesdaland. And, because both humans and dwarves want to have a peaceful relation, and because the dwarves were few in comparison with the north-east and the East, they became vassals of the Wesdalandian Kings, and their land became known as the Dwarven March, and the leader of this dwarfs held the title of marquis.

In the extreme north of the Chain, in the fertile plains near the Twin lakes and the volcanoes, the dwarves came into conflict with a Radali tribe, the Astarobres. They and the dwarves usually met on the plains in between the two settlements and fought until one side retreated. Both people loved war and as years passed both peoples began respecting each other's bravery and martial skills. In the end, ten years after their wars had begun, a peace was signed between both peoples and an agreement was made to divide the terrains in two, one year it would be the dwarves who would cultivate that area, and the following year it would be the Astarobres.

For the next 80 years many dwarven communities were established and these new kingdoms, principalities and republics became important players in the politics of the continent, often under the spheres of influence of the great powers of Teria, like The Blatian Empire, the Kingdom of Wesdaland or the Northern Human Realms.