South of Spyre, the dwarven land of Khalud-Khuzir lies. Named Khalud for the first king of the dwarves there, and Khuzir for the name of the mountains. most know the kingdom Khuzir though, and anyone that states its true name gets a great deal of respect from the dwarves. The Dwarves of Khalud-Khuzir faithfully follow their King, Thalag Milud. Their great craftsmanship is well known throughout the area, and is some of the most sought after weapons and armor. Their Kingdom’s bounds are everchanging since they are continually mining and moving to different tunnels. It has been said on could cross the world underground through these tunnels. It would be impossible as a “kingdom” of the drow live under the ground too with a few major cities across the world. The biggest one has not been found, but some dwarven philosophers have speculated that their biggest city is under Spyre in the ancient soldevi city it was built over. The Khalud-Khuzirs are developing a hatred towards elves from their many fights with the drow(which are dark elves, for the ill informed). The kingdom is in a friendly state right now and is benefiting greatly from the open trade policy they have instated with their closest neighbors, Tar Valon and Spyre. While officially, there is no peace treaty, there is one in the works with both cities. The king of Khalud-Khuzir, Thalag Milud, is growing old at 167 years, and it is wondered who the new king will be when Thalag Milud leaves the throne. Only Thalag knows who it will be, and he has yet to give a name. Recently, a new metal was found in the mines of Khalud-Khuzir. It is as strong as steel, if not stronger, at half the weight. The only problem is that’s not even the dwarves have found a way to successfully forge weapons with it. It has been rumored that a group of dwarves that have tried, and failed, to create weapons with this metal are petitioning to the king to send someone to Spyre, as their Soldevi Guild might be able to work it. The dwarves have found 3 extremely large deposits of this metal, which they have name Athalon, after their word for dragon, aphalon. All three deposits are constantly under attack from the drow, and some speculate that the drow are also trying to find a way to work with this metal. This has lead to a debate in whether an all out attack on the drow would be reasonable. There are very few magic users in the kingdom, and it is frowned upon, but any that have the inborn talent (which are extremely rare among dwarves) are taught by elders, and some by even the king himself. Thalag is possibly the best among dwarves with magic. Thalag rarely has much to do with his people unless they are politically involved, or magically involved, but he has taken a special interest in on young dwarven warrior, Darzim Lereno. Darzim is 3' 9", 156 lbs. and 34 years old compared to Thalag’s 4' 2”, 131 lbs and 167 years old. Darzim is the head of a task force sent to major attacks from the drow, or any other attack in the dwarves underground home, and gets the job done with amazing effiecency. He has developed a hate for all elves from his experience against the drow, and now has a secret agenda against them. Darzim is most interested in the kingdom’s keeper of the flame, who must protect the flame of the aphalon, Khuzgul. It is said that the dragon will come back and attack the dwarves after being driven away by them so many years ago, and that the only way to stop him is to burn him with his own flame. This flame is safeguarded for that very purpose.
i will add on later.
btw, ill do race descriptions of the three elven races: Wood Elf, High Elf, and Dark Elf/Drow. but heres what i would base it on:
Wood Elf: typical elf, reclusive by nature, live about 1000 years, about same height as humans, but smaller build yada yada yada
High Elf: can only be spawn from wood elves. immortal in that they dont die from old age. most wood elven cities are ruled by a couple high elves. slighly more human like then wood elves, usually banished once someone finds out they are high elves. high elves that have babies will ultimately produce a wood elf, unless mated with humans, then a half high elf/human is born. common place among human kingdoms.
Drow/Dark Elf: not exactly elven, they just look like elves, other then that, their own race. live underground and typically are fighting with dwarves all the time. live about 400 years.
*high elves are banished from wood elven cities unless stated by one of the ruling high elves.*
Tar Valon is at peace with Khalud-Khuzir.
Autumn Gaeanewt
the only way above ground to reach Khuzir is straight from Spyre. Upon reaching Khuzir, you see a huge fortress, thousands of years old, jutting out of the mountains. This fortress, dubbed Gulzder-Khrow(meaning Giant-Stone in dwarven) by traveling dwarves, is always being reinforced. Even though at most places, the walls are 2-3 feet thick of stone, the dwarves are constantly adding on steel and bricks to make it both more defendable and bigger. This fortress is one of a handful remaining from the dwarven wars, long ago the dwarves of Somnium went into a civil war, that many outsiders did not know about. Khalud-Khuzir is one of the few surviving kingdoms from that day, even if its reduced to 1/3 of the size it was. The dwarves rarely travel very far underground, as more then just drow lurk in the depths, waiting to attack anything and everything. They ave made a sort of an exception when it comes to the athalon deposits, as they are much farther down then the dwarves normally go. The Khuzirian kingdom stretches throughabout 1/4 of the Khuzir mountains, before it reaches an area that many different barbarians, orcs, goblins, and other creature of the frotnierr inhabit. some khuzirian dwarves beleive that after this area of wilderness, another great dwarven kingdom exists, but they will probably never know.
the king of Khuzir, Thalag Milud, is advised by the keeper of the flame daily. The keeper is a wise, old dwarf(in fact, no one, not even him, know his age) whose name has been forgotten in the ages, so many just call him Kheaper(dwarven for keeper). the Kheaper can sense when the dragon Khuzgul nears, and grows farther away, and it is said the he wil be live as long a Khuzgul is alive.
thats it for today.
Khalud-Khuzir plays a very important role in the area. Over the years, they have had their hand in virtually every major military conflict, and always did it "for the good of the people" while in fact, they do it for the good of themselves. Whether it be to protect trade with another city, or to keep a small group of rebels from builing up a force to attack Khuzir. Khuzir is probably the best prepared nation in the area militarily. Constantly reinforcing and building newer, better weapons, and all the while hording a huge stock of foodstuff from trading. The khuzirian merchants are careful who they trade their weapons to, as they know that if enough of them fall into the wrong hands, they will have to fight a full scale war. But because its hard to grow food in the middle of a mountain, they are forced to trade away what they know best for the food they need. If Tel Varon and Spyre were to turn on Khuzir simultaniously, they would eventually be able to beat the dwarven nation into submission, as they would be putting a major food crunch on them, but that would take many years, and by that time the dwarves of khuzir would find another source for foodstuff, and could very easily pick up an unexpected ally. But the way things are going, Khuzir is more likely to go to war to protect Spyre or Tel Varon then to protect themselves from the 2 cities.