Underground Kingdom

By far the largest and most dominant player in Crystal's Underground is the Dwarven Kingdom. Largely ignored since the close of the Great War, the Kingdom has enjoyed an extended period of isolated prosperity, cut off from the rest of the Dimension and the Web and left to attend to the standard Dwarven devices.

Land

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The Kingdom comprises virtually everything in the Lower Underground, encompassing the vast shores of the Magma Sea, as well as the Dwarven Heartland on the Plains of Basalt and the Obsidian Highlands. The Dwarves have carved out strongholds into almost every sheer stone face within their territory, erecting enormous monuments to Dwarven greatness throughout their realm. Dwarven ingenuity continually expands where and how the Dwarven race can live: Magma Ships ply the Magma Sea, and the shining Silverwing airships soar high above in the Underground's "sky" and keep the Kingdom interconnected. There is no slab of solid rock in the Lower Underground that Dwarvenkind has not managed to settle. Still, for all the carving and cutting and mining, for the most part the natural environment of the Lower Underground has remained intact. There is a certain majesty to the alien landscape on the Plains of Basalt that Dwarves strive to keep intact and live in a bizarre sort of harmony with.

The main landmass of the Lower Underground is the Igneus Continent, a U-shaped mass of cooled magma. The U-curve of Igneus runs from the Agart Crater in the Northeast, to the Tower of Babil in the West. In terms of distance, this span corresponds to the distance between Eblan and Agart on the surface. South from the crater, spanning the bulging isthmus between Bazzakrak and the Agart Crater, are the Plains of Basalt. A few outposts dot this landscape, but for the most part it is a blasted, desolate and flat land. At the center of the Plains is the stronghold of Bolbek, the Plains City. Bolbek is the first Dwarven city, and in its oldest sections shows evidence of the architectural antecedents of most modern Dwarven fortification techniques. It should be noted that even the Dwarves concede they are not native to the environment of the Basalt Plains, but from whence Dwarves originally migrated none are old enough to tell. The only creatures native to the Plains are the Ironbacks -- huge shell-covered creatures that resemble armadillos but are, in fact, reptiles. The Ironback herds sustain themselves on the fireweeds and flamemosses that manage to grow in the sweltering heat of the Plains, and in turn provide the Dwarves with eggs, meat and burden.

South of the Plains, on the West side of the U's bend, is Bazzakrak, the Castle City. This is the center of Dwarvendom, where the Dwarf King (Dverkkonig) reigns. The castle of Bazzakrak lies with its main gates facing East toward the shore, its rearward walls nestled up against sheer rock cliff faces. By way of tunnelworks, Bazzakrak Castle's settlement extends west through the mountains, into the region known as the Obsidian Highlands. Here the rock has claws; jagged blades of shining obsidian that slashes the unwary traveller. Ironback-pulled wagons have historically braved trek out from the Bazzakrak tunnels into the Highlands to prospect for gems and loose shards of obsidian, which fetch high prices in the Dwarven market for their beauty.

Bazzakrak was initially selected as a center for trade by the major clan lords of the three Dwarven city-states: Tomra, Kokkol and Bolbek. Its location on the lower portion of the Igneus landmass made it an ideal focal point for the scattered Dwarven communities, and its ports teemed with magmaship traffic for ages. Eventually, when the Goblin tribes of the West grew bolder in their gem-poaching on the Obsidian Highlands, the major clans of the three Dwarven city-states elected to form a military alliance on the foundation of their existing trade alliance. This was when the Hearthguard was formed, and Bazzakrak became a military fortification. The strategy against the Goblins was typical of Dwarven conservatism: hold them back, and retain the integrity of the Dwarves' territory on the Igneus Continent -- which by default was believed to consist of everything on the Eastern half of Igneus. Over time the Hearthguard gained more and more power, until finally the leader of the Hearthguard was too powerful for the Clans to control. This leader, Dorvoin Firebeard, became the first King of Dwarvendom, and took for himself the title of Dverkkonig.

It was Dorvoin who conceived of the Unfulfilled Dominion: his belief that all the land that was cool enough to walk on was rightfully the unclaimed property of Dwarvendom, and that it should become the Hearthguard's task to set out and reclaim the fertile lands of the West from the uncivilized Goblins (upon whom the value of this sacred resource was most mournfully wasted). A tinker, as well as a warrior, by trade, Dorvoin is credited with the invention of the steam tank during this era (described in Dorvoin's invention diary as a "magmaship that sails on seas of cooled stone, and rains down Rubicant's fire upon the unfortunate foes of Bazzakrak's Hearthguard").

These vehicles, primitive by modern standards but cutting age at their inception, rolled through the passes of the Obsidian Highlands and into the Goblin tribal hunting grounds on the Plains of Ash. The Plains of Ash are so named because they are home to the Lower Underground's only "tree," the Neverburn. Neverburn trees are tall fungal growths which glow ever so slightly and are completely immune to flame and heat until they mature, whereupon they burst into flames as they release their spores into the air. These spores settle in the ash of their ancestors, and slowly grow anew, repeating the cycle. This delicate ecosystem was nearly annihilated by the Hearthguard advance, for the fighting between the Dwarves and Goblins scattered centuries' worth of settled ash-soil to the thermal winds. Today, the Ash Plains bear the scars of this battle in the form of the twisting roads known as the Tracks of Blood. The Tracks are the only legal route for non-foot traffic across the Plains: in modern times the Ash Plains are protected by Dwarven law.

North of the Ash Plains is the Furnace, a sweltering landscape of open vents where the Magma Sea has very nearly reclaimed the cool earth. The mountains which ring the boiling valley of the Furnace are the homeland of the Goblin Tribes, and this was where the Goblins managed to successfully hold back the Hearthguard advance by calling upon the aid of the Fire Fiend Rubicant. Rubicant then charged the Goblins to guard the Furnace and protect its passes from Dwarven incursion, by way of protecting Rubicant's lair in the lower levels of the Tower of Babil.

Apart from the Igneus Continent, the Kingdom also lays claim to Tomra and Kokkol, two communities on the Southern Edgelands. Tomra has long been a wealthy city of craftsmen and rune-workers, but it is also an important site for the Hearthguard. Tomra's Clan Hammerhands was entrusted with one of the four Dark Crystals, which was then placed in a valley cave to the North of Tomra. The Hammerhands craftsmen and rune-workers then created seven living doors, each marked with a Seal of Guardianship, and placed them in the cave to guard the Crystal. Thus the cave of the Crystal is known as the Sealed Cave. The Cave has only been breached once in all of recorded history, when Golbez took the all the world's Crystals, but since that time the Dark Crystals have been reclaimed and they now all rest within Tomra's legendary vault.

Though the wards on the Sealed Cave are active even to this day, the Hearthguard still maintains a vigil outside the Cave to protect the Crystals.

Kokkol is a city renowned for its weaponsmiths. This is the city that built the first of Dorvoin's steam tanks, and the city in which the prototypes for the Grand Army's tanks were built. Kokkol is also the location of one of two Grand Army garrisons in the Lower Underground (the other being on the rim of the Crater of Agart).

Finally, just West across the Magma from the Furnace and the Tower of Babil, lies the Realm of the Sylphs. Though nominally sovereign, the Hearthguard maintains a garrison here to watch over the Spider's Gate (which leads into the Drow realms of the Upper Underground), and the Sylphs have always bowed to the will of the Dwarven King so long as they have relied upon the Hearthguard's protection from the Dark Elves.

Population

The majority population by far is Dwarven, with the bulk of the population centered on the Basalt Plains. Bazzakrak is by far the most populous city in the Underground, and also covers the most area: in addition to the city itself, and the castle, Bazzakrak's tunnel-dwellings delve Westward throughout the Obsidian Highlands. All told, Bazzakrak's total area measurement (above and below "ground") is almost as big as some small countries in the Web.

Goblins still dwell in the tunnels of the mountains surrounding the Furnace, and they are now fully incorporated into the Kingdom's society. Though Dwarven antipathy toward Goblins still borders on violent racism, Dwarven law protects most basic Goblin civil rights. While Goblins are secure enough so long as they remain in the area of the Furnace, social mobility for them is next to impossible in mainstream Dwarven society. Politically, Goblins are almost entirely disenfranchised in the Dwarven system: they are only able to empower local political leadership, but even then Goblin leaders must answer to the regional commander of the Hearthguard.

The Sylphs and their territory in the far Northwest Edgelands, as mentioned, are considered to be part of the Kingdom's protectorate -- said by some Dwarven politicians to be the last step in realizing King Dorvoin's Dominion.

Finally, the area around the Crater of Agart is home to the Underground's human populations -- mostly merchants who travel to the Underground by airship by way of Mount Agari, but also the soldiers and families from the GA barracks located on the rim of the crater. Some limited human-dwarf co-mingling occurs in this region, and so a small population of muls (half-human, half-dwarves) has appeared in the years since the Great War. Mainstream Dwarven society is not sure how to react to these half-breeds: some detest them openly, while others see them no differently than they see humans. Few (practically no) Dwarves view Muls as bretheren, or in any way deserving of the bonds of hammered steel that hold Dwarvendom together.

With the humans have also come R- and RT-Series robots. Most Dwarves are fascinated by these artificial lifeforms, and contact between robot and Dwarf has sparked a Dwarven interest in cybernetics that is currently in its fledgling stages. However, there is a fringe group of Dwarves (mostly arcane craftsmen and rune-workers from Tomra) who hate the robots and everything associated with them. This group's leader has prophesied that the RT-Series will one day wipe out all Dwarvenkind and settle the Underground in Dwarf's place, but most sane people dismiss this group's predictions as little more than the side effects of a narcotic mushroom they ritually consume while contemplating Ilmarinen's runes.

Government

Bazzakrak is ruled by a King, who bears the traditional Dwarven title of Dverkkonig. The current King is Phiott Whitehammer, the third son of his family to rule from the seat of the Hearthstone. The King is empowered by the Herrenkammar (Clan Lords Council) to command the Hearthguard and make executive and legislative decisions for the whole of the Kingdom. However, over the centuries since Dorvoin's rule as the First Dverkkonig, the clan lords have slowly entrenched their power in the city states of the core dwarven provinces, and so practically speaking the King's decrees pertaining to the regions of Tomra, Kokkol and Bolbek are hammered out as a concensus between the King and the Clan Lords. Since the Sylphs, Goblins and Humans of the Kingdom have no recognized Lords or Clans, they do not benefit from this limited form of regional representation, and so the King's word is absolute with respect to the provinces of the Sylph's Realm, the Furnace and the Agart Crater. While the King generally gets along well with all the Clans, each Clan sees the others as competition for the King's favor, and so there tends to be a lot of regional in-fighting.

Apart from the King, there are two other bodies that are vital organs of the Dwarven government: the Herrenkammar, and the Hearthguard. The former has been briefly alluded to above: it is, simply, a council comprised of the heads of the major Dwarven Clans (or their appointed representatives). Though there are many Clans in the Kingdom, there are seven that are recognized as having major sway over political affairs (of those one is the King's clan, Whitehammer, which is only afforded an advisory position in the Herrenkammar). The members of those seven major clans are: *King Phiott of Clan Whitehammer of Bazzakrak- By virtue of holding the Hearthstone, Clan Whitehammer is afforded an advisory post on the Herrenkammar. This is where the deals that affect the decrees issued with respect to the Dwarven Hearthlands are made. *Lord Yeslick of Clan Orothiar of Bolbek- Clan Orothiar is one of the oldest, most respected clans in the Kingdom. For generations, Orothiar has all but ruled the Basalt Plains. Orothiar's wealth comes principally from the clan's Ironback ranches and lichen farms, which provide the majority of the Kingdom's food supply. Lord Yeslick himself is a ranking Priest of Ilmarinen and a devout servant of the King. *Lord Dar of Clan Hammerhands of Tomra- Clan Hammerhands is known for its rowdy celebrations and the exploits of its adventuresome younger males. Lord Dar himself, despite being a middle-aged and mature Dwarf, is known for his love of doing everything to excess. Hammerhands has always been a reliable ally of the Whitehammer Kings, however, because they share a common cousin somewhere down the family tree (well known to all, thanks to the Dwarven obssession for extensive geneaological studies). Lord Dar and Lord Yeslick are hardly the best of friends, but both have a distinct distaste for Lord Korgan and Lord Kagain, and ally against them whenever they have occassion to. *Lord Deg of Clan Stonehead of Bolbek- One of the more martial clans, the Stoneheads are allied tightly with the interests of the Hearthguard, and in fact Lord Deg himself currently holds the rank of General in the Hearthguard. Detached from the squabbling between the Clans, Deg and Clan Stonehead give their support to the Hearthguard's interests, wherever and whenever they require it. Of all the clans on the Herrenkammar, Stonehead most often comes to blows with Bloodaxe. *Lord Korgan of Clan Bloodaxe of Tomra - Clan Bloodaxe is as staunchly militarist as Stonehead, but rather than rely upon the Hearthguard, Bloodaxe has joined several other clans in sponsoring the Battleragers -- an independently funded and armed militia of Dwarven berserkers. While there is no specific law which prohibits the formation of an independent militia, other clans have chided Bloodaxe for the move. Members of the Battleragers have been implicated in civil disturbances involving Goblins, Muls, RT droids and Sylphs, leading some to wonder if there is an agenda of racial purity behind the Battleragers. Still others are against the idea simply because it defies the regimented foundational order of the Kingdom's military, which has always been implemented by way of the Hearthguard. Lord Korgan could care less: like his berserkers, he can see little more than the fight before him. *Lord Kagain of Clan Grimgnaw of Kokkol- Residing in the City of Smiths, Lord Kagain is not only the patron of Clan Grimgnaw, but he is also the reigning Priest of Rubicant. As a Disciple of Fire, Kagain sees it as his duty to keep the forge fires stoked -- both literally, and spiritually. The Dwarven race does not grow and remain strong if it is not challenged, and to that end Kagain has given his support to Lord Korgan in the Herrenkammar. He does not necessarily believe what Clan Bloodaxe is doing is right, but neither does he believe it will harm the Kingdom either -- so long as the Kingdom rises to meet the Battleragers' challenge. And should the Kingdom fail and burn, so much the better: Lord Rubicant hungers, and the flame of his appetite is insatiable. The millennia-old regime of the Kingdom would make a fitting sacrifice to be cast into Lord Rubicant's Magma Sea... and perhaps, in the aftermath, Clan Grimgnaw will rise from the ashes and take the Hearthstone for itself... The fact is, though, that Grimgnaw has few other allies in the Herrenkammar besides Clan Bloodaxe. Being that they belong to different churches, Orothiar and Grimgnaw are natural enemies, and Lord Dar Hammerhands finds Kagain too creepy to abide his company for very long (as a sacrifice to Rubicant, Lord Kagain cut off his beard and ritually burned his face so no beard would ever grow there again -- a dwarf with no beard is a chilling sight to most). Lord Deg Stonehead disapproves of Grimgnaw's support for the Battleragers, and Lord Morg Metalwield (despite belonging to the Battleragers) is a follower of Ilmarinen and cannot tolerate the wicked Disciples of Fire. *Lord Morg of Clan Metalwield of Kokkol - The Metalwield Clan rose to prominence in olden times for the skill of its sons in smithing. It was a Metalwield who founded the city of Kokkol and forged the sword Excalibur from Silveran Adamant for Cecil Harvey in the age of Antiquity. As the leader of a venerated and historically powerful clan, Lord Morg has quite a bit of pull in the Kingdom. Which is why Lord Yeslick and his faction were so distressed when Lord Morg announced that Clan Metalwield was fielding its own force of Battleragers, under the guidance of trainers from Clan Bloodaxe. Lord Morg's intentions, however, are less sinister or depraved than his allies in the Battleragers faction: Morg has seen the reports from the Sylph Realm of the increasing frequency of Drow scouting patrols. His goal is to make sure that Metalwield has a sufficient supplemental fighting force ready in case the Hearthguard comes up shorthanded. Morg himself has trained in the berserking art of the Battleragers, a fact which is belied in noble settings by his calm demeanor and level voice (he is not the raging psychopath that Lord Korgan Bloodaxe is, and therefore not what most would immediately think of when thinking about the Battleragers).

Last, but certainly not least, there is the Hearthguard. The Hearthguard are the Dwarven Kingdom's military, sworn to defend the Underground from all who would make themselves enemies of Dwarfdom. Their original mission at the time of their founding was strictly defensive, though King Dorvoin Firebeard changed that with his Unfulfilled Dominion and the launching of the Westward campaign. However, as the centuries put some distance from Dorvoin's rule (and as there were no more neighbors on the Sea of Magma to conquer), the Hearthguard has shied away from its aggressive expansionist mission and adopted more of its core conservative "protect the Hearthlands" values.

The Supreme Commander of the Hearthguard is David Heavenguard. David, it turns out, is a Tahranist Paladin, trained by the Order of the Paladins-Templar, and several of his lieutenants have been likewise converted to Tahranism (including Lord Deg Stonehead). This is causing a small amount of tension between the Hearthguard and the traditional Dwarven Churches, not the least of which Lord Yeslick (who has tried several times to get the King to ban the Hearthguard from using Tahranist prayers and blessings in Hearthguard barracks).

Though the King is officially the commander in chief of the Kingdom's defenders, as with the Herrenkammar any decrees he issues regarding the Hearthguard are the result of concensus and conference with Commander Heavenguard and his lieutenants.

Religion

There are but three deities in the Dwarven pantheon: Ilmarinen Heaven-Hammer, Barda Life-Anvil, and Rubicant Flame-Lord. Dwarven belief holds that the world was forged by Ilmarinen in cooperation with Barda and Rubicant, and that the fruits of their efforts together produced a paradise. But the three deities felt cold and naked standing atop the open expanse of their creation. So Rubicant filled the seas with his flame and melted some portion of their world's stone to create a Magma Sea, and Barda raised up a shell of earth overhead to keep the heat inside. And when they were done they had encased their world in a shell that would protect paradise from the evils that lurked out in the larger universe. As a completely unrelated consequence, life occured somehow on its own without the intervention of the Dwarven Gods on the surface of the shell they had created, but these creatures meant nothing to them and so were ignored.

When time came to populate their world, the three came together again. Ilmarinen brought a magic ore, inscribed with Runes of Creation, and set it into Rubicant's flame, where it was heated. Then the ore was placed upon Barda's anvil, and it was worked with thunderous clangs of Ilmarinen's hammer. In time the first Dwarves were born, male and female, joined at the feet until Ilmarinen snapped them apart.

Rubicant showed his true color, though, as Dwarves multiplied and spread across the Underground. Rubicant knew he had the power to destroy with his flame, but he also knew he had the potential to create. All he lacked were Ilmarinen's hammer and knowledge of runes. He seduced one among the Dwarves, a Priest of Ilmarinen, and bade him steal away into Ilmarinen's abode and take for him the hammer and Ilmarinen's book of runeworking (this "book" being a series of inscribed metal plates, bound at the corners with thick metal rings). This dupe was caught, of course, and Rubicant's part in the ploy uncovered. And from then on Dwarfkind knew to be cautious around flame, for as often as it could serve the Dwarf and be his boon, it could also burn him and be his bane. As for the traitor Rubicant had tricked, Ilmarinen banished him forever from the paradise of the Dwarves. He wandered in the Upper Underground and eventually was so maddened by loneliness that he mated with a small burrowing rodent. From this union the Duergar, or Gray Dwarves, were born: brought into the world only to be reviled by all virtuous races.

So we have three churches today in the Dwarven Kingdom: Ilmarinen's (whose Priests are called simply Fathers), Barda's (whose exclusively female priests are called Anvil-Maidens), and Rubicant's (whose priests, the Disciples of Fire, are not especially popular, but are tolerated among clans with a tradition of fire-worship). It should be noted that the Goblin tribes of the Furnace tend to worship Rubicant exclusively, if they worship any deity at all. Increasingly atheism is becoming a trend among young Goblins, as disenfranchisement from the Kingdom's political system engenders a distrust in institutions of all kinds, be they Goblin or Dwarven.

Finally, there is a growing minority among the Dwarves of practicioners of Web Pantheonism, specifically the worship of Tahran and the proliferation of Paladins in the Hearthguard. While most are willing to allow the protectors of the Kingdom to worship as they please, others (not the least of which Lord Yeslick of Clan Orothiar) are trying to stop the spread of this foreign faith, fearing that it could jeopardize the tenuous fellowship of the Dwarves' native gods at the expense of a surfacer import.

Economy

Despite a constant state of vigilance against Drow incursions, the Dwarves of the Lower Underground find that the Drow are their most reliable trade partners. The Kingdom recognizes both the or'a (Drow-minted coins of hard crystal) and surface currencies (especially the Tasnican Geld) as legal for tender and trade. While Drow are not allowed through the Spider's Gate itself, Drow imports flow freely thanks to the neutral trade city of Undermarket. Dwarven transport trucks -- bizarre-looking affairs built for tunnel travel -- frequent the caverns stretching from the Spider's Gate to Undermarket and carry Dwarven goods to Drow markets, and vice versa. While Drow products come in, Dwarven products that export include Ironback products (eggs, meats, hide and shell-wares and ivory), fine-crafted steel weaponry and armors, and other metalwork products. The occasional Dwarven rune-crafted item makes its way into the Undermarket stores, though it is against Dwarven law to sell rune items to the Drow -- something that causes the magically puissant Dark Elves to laugh, as if they would care enough to try and steal what passes among Dwarves for sorcery, though for the Dwarves' part this is not the point: it's the principle of not allowing sacred Dwarven artifacts to fall into their enemies' hands.

Recently, prospectors from the Drow House de'Camyras have been scouting out the caverns just outside the Spider's Gate for untapped adamantium veins. The Sylphs, aware of this, have demanded a doubling of the Hearthguard garrison, and even (if possible) a closing of the Gate entirely. But powerful trade and mercantile interests, including the Tomran Crafts Union, have vigorously opposed such a move as it would utterly destroy the trade between the Kingdom and Undermarket and unduly sever the tie between the Kingdom and its Underground neighbors (which most Dwarves wouldn't really bat an eye at, since the Kingdom has hostile relations with virtually all of said neighbors).

Law

The Kingdom's law is secular and centralized: in all things the King's word is the law (despite understandings of a system of compromise between the King and his immediate inferiors in the Herrenkammar and the Hearthguard). Since Agolfenor Whitehammer first assumed the Hearthstone as Dverkkonig eight hundred years ago, the Whitehammer Kings have softened the traditionally harsh Dwarven relations with non-Dwarves, both at home and in neighboring lands. It was Agolfenor who began to liberalize the Royal position on the rights of Goblins, and then his son Bolfov who established the Sylph Garrison and defended the Spider's Gate from attack during the Spider Slayer Wars. Phiott's legacy has been one that has been at once widely criticized and at the same time hailed as the boldest leadership any Dwarf has showed in generations: he has opened the Spider's Gate to Dwarven mechants, allowing (for the first time) non-military personnel from the Kingdom to pass into the Upper Underground to conduct trade with the Drow. He has accepted the Drow coin, the or'a, as legal tender within the Kingdom. He brokered the deal with the young Celiose Cole to provide his Grand Army with the designs for tanks to battle the minions of the Dark Gods in the Great War, and as a result of that relationship he allowed men and their ilk to settle the cold tablelands around the Crater of Agart.

Still, for all that the Whitehammers have done to open up Dwarven lands to non-Dwarves, the Law as writ onto the very face of the Hearthstone remains unchangeable, even by the hands of a Whitehammer king: no non-Dwarf may be represented in the Herrenkammar, as such a right is reserved exclusively for Dwarven Clans with land and wealth enough to earn the privelege. As inter-Clan politics are the closest things that the Dwarves have to representative political involvement, this entirely disenfranchises non-Dwarves who choose to live in the lands of Dorvoin's Dominion.

For the Dwarves themselves, however, the system is actually rather nice. The theory upon which the entire system is predicated is that Dwarves, as a race, tend to be very hard workers. And so it goes that any Dwarf, it is said, who works hard can rise through the ranks of his Clan, and through collective action and collective hard work can cause his Clan to prosper, rising perhaps even to sit on the Herrenkammar. That individual Dwarf, then, if he is dilligent enough, can perhaps become his Clan's Lord, or his Lord's representative to the Herrenkammar, and earn for himself great prestige and honor. Then, perhaps, that same individual Dwarf may one day be selected as Dverkkonig by the Herrenkammar Lords, to whom most matters of succession invariably fall.

One immediately notices the preponderance of caveats which plague this system the higher up you go. While, indeed, it is true that most Dwarves have great potential for upwards (and downwards) social and economic mobility within their Clans, the fact remains that there is a great deal of nepotism which plagues the leadership positions of the Kingdom. By keeping the Herrenkammar happy, Dverkkonigs ensure a place for their children to assume the Hearthstone in their passing, thus establishing Dwarven dynasties. In similar fashion, Clan Lords appoint their sons or daughters as their seconds, passing the mantle on from parent to child and keeping new blood out of the Herrenkammar. This is a display of two of the principle drives in the Dwarven psyche that might seem to be at odds with one another, but compliment each other nicely in this innocently corrupt system of governance: the belief in individual hard work, and the belief in communal stability. At once, a Dwarf knows that he -- by himself -- must work hard to be prosperous: nobody is going to do it for him. So each individual Dwarf has a particular focus, chosen around adolescence, that determines his career path for pretty much the rest of his natural life (Dwarves do not "retire" from work). At the same time, Dwarves are by nature a clannish race, and within the Clan a Dwarf desires stability. For the sake of stability, a Dwarf is willing to sacrifice much -- to a point, that is: so long as the fruits of a Dwarf's labor are not undeserverdly taken from him, the Dwarf will support his clan. So most Dwarves are not overly concerned that they will never practically be able to rise to the Hearthstone -- not everybody can, after all. So long as the King keeps the forge fires burning, Dwarfkind in general supports the system as is. Those who lobby for change or reform are rabble-rousers who are doing nothing but rocking the boat -- and since the seas of the Lower Underground are glowing flows of magma, that analogy takes on a whole new meaning for Dwarfkind.

Internal Politics

The Clan rivalries of the Dwarves are tame compared to the House rivalries of the Dwarves' Dark Elven neighbors. Political maneuverings are key, but the positions of the Clans are less due to currying the favor of deities than the relative economic standings of each Clan, as well as each Clan's history, legacies and modern achievements. The Clan that undoubtedly has the most pull within the Herrenkammar is Orothiar, whose power accrued due to their control of the Kingdom's agriculture.

Orothiar represents one staunchly conservative faction on the Herrenkammar which advocates the upholding of traditions and the status quo. They oppose the formation of Clan militias, the expansion of the rights of non-Dwarves, and the spread of foreign religions within Dwarven lands. Opposing them are a faction loosely known as the Battleragers, named for the Clan militia programs they have fostered across the Kingdom. Battleragers practice the relatively new Dwarven martial art of berserker fighting, and can work themselves into an adrenalized rage with little thought or concentration. Initially conceived by the Bloodaxe Clan, this assortment of mostly younger clans are forming up independent armies that have caused a fair deal of chaos, including and especially violence against foreigners and non-Dwarves. The only ideal that unites this faction of clans is the protection of this right to create and maintain Battlerager militias (which is only a right insofar as the King has not yet declared it illegal); on all other domestic issues the clans go their own ways.

Because of Orothiar's opposition to the spread of foreign religions, the Clan has found itself in the curious position of being a political enemy of the Kingdom's official military, the Hearthguard. The Hearthguard's Supreme Commander, David Heavenguard, is a member of the Order of the Paladins Templar and the highest ranking devotee of Tahran in the Underground. Lord Yeslick of Orothiar made the ghastly mistake at one point of publically chastising Heavenguard for his faith, implying that he had abandoned his Dwarvendom. This was a very, very bad thing for him to have said, politically, and though Heavenguard offered no response Lord Yeslick's damage control was immediately dispatched to quell uprisings against his rulership within his own Clan. It was only after King Phiott offered an (unasked for) pardon to Lord Yeslick that things calmed down for Clan Orothiar, but ever since the incident Lord Yeslick's clout with lesser clans has been significantly diminished.

The King, interestingly enough, though he wields incredible amounts of explicit power, tends to express his power by way of more subtle balancing gestures between the rivals who occupy the tiers beneath him. He is the negociator between rival clans, and the peacemaker between the interests of the Hearthguard versus the Herrenkammar (or the relatively young and unestablished merchant guilds).

Foreign Politics

Since the Great War, the Underground has enjoyed an extended period of isolation from outside contact. It is safe to say that the Kingdom enjoys no formal relations with any surface power, save for the Grand Army itself. And even then, the only government official who has any kind of contact with the Grand Army is the King (the King has not appointed an Alliance Congress delegation; instead he votes on matters himself in absentia via live text transfer).

In the Underground, the Kingdom is practically at a perpetual state of war with all its neighbors. The Dark Elves are longtime enemies, as are the Gray Dwarves, who have grown cold and wicked from their long exile away from the Magma Sea. Tenuous (and all but subjugated) allies include the Goblins and the Sylphs, who make up the larger racial minorities of the Kingdom and technically do not count as "foreign," save for their near complete disenfranchisement from domestic affairs.

Military

The Kingdom has only one official armed force: the Hearthguard. The Hearthguard are an organization committed to the defense of the Dwarven Kingdom's borders, and are roughly divided into three commands: the Tank Corps, the Magmaship Fleet, and the Silverwings.

The Tank Corps are the Hearthguard's combined ground forces. Though the heart of this force are its King Giott tanks, the Tank Corps also fields a infantry of Calbrena battlesuits (largely designed around protecting the tanks, and going where the tanks cannot). A small number of Tahranist Paladins are found throughout this force, and they lead the battlesuited Dwarven troopers with enchanted axes and armor. A smaller number of Ilmarinen-worshipping, Templar-trained Paladins exist within the Tank Corps, but the majority of Paladins by far have converted to worship of Tahran thanks to the influence of Commander Heavenguard. A small subdivision of the Tank Corps, the Tunnel Rats, are elite units trained and specialized in tunnel infiltration, sapping and close-quarters subterrannean fighting. Possible missions for the Tunnel Rats in a campaign against the Dark Elves include espionage, sabotage (collapsing tunnels on advancing forces) and assassination of key Dark Elven officers.

The Magmaship Fleet is less a true offensive navy than a limited coastguard. The Fleet maintains only two warship designs: a big boat and a small boat. The lack of diversity is due principally to the lack of magma-sailing enemies within the Underground, but part of the Hearthguard strategy for defense against invasion is to maintain Magmaship advantage over the Drow and, if it comes to it, isolate an invading Drow army to the Sylph Realm, where they can be pounded into oblivion by offshore bombardment.

Finally, the Silverwings are the Kingdom's airforce. These rather primitive airships are designed to resist heat and use the thermal winds of the Underground's magma sea to facilitate flight -- though they are also equipped with more standard airship engines so that they can venture onto Crystal's surface to interact with the surfacers. Again, due to lack of airborne enemies, the Silverwings are considered a reserve force; their peacetime duties include civilian commercial (as well as diplomatic and political) air transport as well as the shipment of military assets from manufacture to deployment. During wartime, they would be used to bombard an invading enemy from above -- an attack against which the Drow would be near completely helpless outside the safety of their gods-forsaken radiation.

Finally, there are the Battleragers. Trained in Dwarven berserking at the stronghold of Dwazim, through methods pioneered by the Bloodaxe Clan Lord Korgan, the Battleragers are a loosely-bound network of individual Clan militias. Though nominally created to assist in the Kingdom's defense against Drow invasion, opponents of the program foresee that Clans with private armies could easily lead to inter-clan warfare that would tear the Kingdom apart at the seams. To date no Battlerager units have been deployed to the Spider's Gate; instead they are being amassed in the clanhomes of the Lords who sponsor them.

People

• King Phiott Whitehammer

The Dwarven King and Ruler of the Underground. Phiott is old enough to remember the Great War, and the times before it. King Phiott is a founding signatory of the Grand Army Charter Alliance, and the Dwarf who personally offered to build Celiose Cole a prototype tank to help him win the Great War. He is also the Dwarf who opted for policies of isolationism and turning inward once the Great War was done, and it is for this reason that the Bazzakrak has had no real relations with the powers of the surface world for nearly twenty years.

It should be said that Phiott is also old enough to remember the last time Bazzakrak suffered a Dark Elven invasion. He has spent every day of his reign since working to ensure that it never happens again.

• Supreme Commander David Heavenguard

A trained Tahranist Paladin, Heavenguard is the Supreme Commander of the Hearthguard, the combined armed forces of the Underground Kingdom.

• Lord Yeslick Orothiar of Bolbek

One of the Clan Lords of Bolbek. The eldest Dwarf of the Herrenkammar. A conservative Priest of Ilmarinen; disapproves of the spread of Tahranism in the Underground. Opposes the Battleragers.

• Lord Deg Stonehead of Bolbek

One of the Clan Lords of Bolbek, a Hearthguard General. Trained by Commander Heavenguard as a Paladin.

• Lord Dar Hammerhands of Tomra

One of the Clan Lords of Tomra. Opposes the Battleragers.

• Lord Korgan Bloodaxe of Tomra

One of the Clan Lords of Tomra, leader of the Battleragers faction. Formed the Battlerager militias against Commander Heavenguard's objections.

• Lord Kagain Grimgnaw of Kokkol

One of the Clan Lords of Kokkol, a High Priest of Rubicant. Member of the Battleragers faction.

• Lord Morg Metalwield of Kokkol

One of the Clan Lords of Kokkol, a descendent of the founder of Kokkol. Member of the Battleragers faction.

• Kazil Bloodaxe

The cousin of Lord Korgan, and the commandant at the stronghold of Dwazim. Kazil is tasked with overseeing the training of more Battleragers, and so there is a constant influx of recruits from across the Dwarven Underground coming and going to and from Dwazim's ports.

Cities

• Bazzakrak

The Castle City, Bazzakrak is the capital of the Dwarven Underground, founded in antiquity by Dorvoin Firebeard himself. Among the fortifications of the Web of Worlds, it is regarded by some to be the most impregnable.

• Bolbek

The Plains City, Bolbek is the cradle of Dwarven civilization and, after Bazzakrak, is the most important city in the Dwarven Underground. Bolbek produces most of the food that feeds the rest of the kingdom, and it contains a great deal of Dwarven history in its older quarters.

• Tomra

The Vault City. For countless ages, the clans of Tomra have been tasked with the defense of the Sealed Cave, which has housed the four Dark Crystals since King Cecil ruled Baron. Tomra is also known for its magical craftsmen; the best rune-shapers in the Kingdom come from Tomra.

• Kokkol

The City of Smiths. For ages, Kokkol was known for its production of weaponry. That continues to this day, as Kokkol is the city where most of the Underground's armaments are forged.

• Dwazim

The Battlerager Stronghold. This long abandoned fortress -- a remnant of an impressive fortification built by Golbez's Red Wings centuries ago -- and the city around it were all but taken over by the Bloodaxe Clan only recently, and in the time since Dwazim has become the central training ground for the Battlerager militias.

• Agart Crater

A city built around the Underground's primary Grand Army garrison, this city is home to the Underground's primary population of humans and other outsiders. Due to mingling between Dwarves and Humans, a large number of Muls live here.

• The Furnace

Less a city than a collection of cities scattered through high mountain caves, this region is home to the Underground's Goblin population. In these modern, civilized times, Dwarf and Goblin no longer make war on each other -- but that surely doesn't mean the intense racist hatred has died down any.

• The Sylph Realm

This northwesternmost shelf crust is the province where the Sylphs make their home. The Sylphs necessarily host a large Hearthguard garrison to protect their lands from Dark Elven incursions through the Spider Gate.