Kingdom of Kardune (Car Dune)
Overview
As of current times the Dwarves and Gent are still occupying the 8 City-States within Kardune, each of which hosts a council of 7 Elders, 3 Dwarves, 3 Gent and 1 Dwarf or Gent, known as a Shrift, who directly represents the King and Queen so as to keep information flowing between the councils and the Monarchs. Changes made on the local level to each city and its region are made at the Council level, normally not requiring a tie breaking vote cast by the Councils Shrift. Any decisions handed down by the King and Queen are of national concern to the people of Kardune and are to be carried out across the entire nation, not being able to be overridden by any Councils.
Aithel still stands as the shining center of Kardune and its capital city. Though this city houses the King and Queen, it too has a council of Elders the same as all of the other cities. The same laws apply to all cities within Kardune as the laws are agreed upon through the King and Queen and passed down to the Council of each city. Aithel is a marvelous metropolis located centrally within Kardune and is underneath its largest mountain. The city is active night and day and the mountain is surrounded by Gent farms, hunting grounds, logging groups and other food production.
The other 7 cities are named as follows; Bargeen, Frustill, Quaith, Marnd, Deeprock, Oldplace, Meandr and Last Landing.
As of the modern day, the Dwarves and Gent have completed their greatest work of industrial and cultural significance in hundreds of years. Their King and Queen determined that the peoples of Kardune were too divided due to the difficulty of reaching each city-state through the harsh topography of their nation. So, they commissioned the construction of a subterranean tunnel system that would connect every one of the city states with Aithel at its center. They started construction of this massive tunnel complex, making sure to create outposts along it for long travels underground, as well as starting the development of a waterway system to be placed running parallel to the roads developed in the tunnel system. As of the modern day, this great tunnel complex has been completed and was named The Great Way by the people of Kardune. They now use this great tunnel complex to move people and cargo through the mountains without the need for overland travel. For larger groups or cargo loads, they use the waterway system running parallel to the roads inside of The Great Way. These waterways, while not using wind to propel the boats, instead use a massive pulley system that slowly pulls the boats along the waterways. This has led to a great increase in the economic boom of Kardune and has created a sense of prosperity for its people. The Dwarves and Gent are the leading nation in the development of Runic Magic.
Societal History and Governance
The first decades after The Fall, were a time of hardship for all races, least of which for the Dwarves and Gent. During all of this the magic that had been granted to the Dwarven King and the Gent Queen dissipated much the same as it did across the entire world. We will go into further detail of what this meant across the entire world in a later section as we go over each race. The Dwarves and Gent were unaware at first of what had happened and thus were thrown into an Age of Chaos. This lasted for quite some time as the Dwarves of Lendil and the Dwarves of Gorut became even more distant. They blamed their King and his royal house for the loss of their blessings and their magic. Communication between the two cultures broke down over these years and the separation between the two cultures reached its peak at this time. Trade between them broke down to such an extent that neither culture would work with one another in a unified way for over a thousand years. The Church of the Aimur which had already spread far at this point in Human societies had reached the Dwarves and Gent of Lendil. This coupled with the outreach of an olive branch from the different nations of Humanity in this difficult time slowly but surely eroded most of the love these people had for their old ways. The Gent and Dwarves of Lendil held a meeting between all of the leaders of the 8 distinct City-States and came to the conclusion that they would adopt the teachings of the Unified Aimur Church would worship with them and praise with them, and would fight alongside Humanity should a threat ever come to their lands.
Near the end of the fifty years of the Age of Chaos, and after the defeat of the Fen’ Ur from the Southern Continent of Malius, the Dwarves and Gent both formally recognized the Archon in their midst. An Archon is the singular individual that each one of the Aimur has appointed as their mortal representative. They wield a considerable amount of power from their Aimur and are able to dol out this power in small pieces to those who show the most worth in their society. The Dwarves and the Gent were each given an Archon and thus decided to found the nation of the 8 City-States, each still holding its own governing council of elders, underneath the banner of a singular Dwarven King and Gent Queen, as was the tradition of old. This new nation was named Kardune and its capital of Aithel was created under the tallest mountain in those lands. The Queen of the Gent and the King of the Dwarves reigned from this city-state with their newfound powers, the Dwarven King being the Archon of Titos and the Gent Queen being the Archon of Shivara. Thus they entered into an age of reconstruction from what they once knew. For once the God Zagan had committed his treason and was made to Fall into the pits of Hell, the vast amount of Magic that those of the Dwarves and Gent relied on to do many of the feats they once knew were now so very limited. A great majority of those alive today in any nation have never seen magic, nor can they cast it freely. Only a select few, chosen by the Archon of each Aimur are given Sparks from which their magic can flow. Thus, the Dwarves and Gent spent many years rebuilding and relearning so much of what was lost and what they could no longer do. They had to learn to create with their own hands, without magical assistance for the most part.
Therefore, in the year 52 AF (After The Fall), the Dwarvish and Gent peoples marked their history as the beginning of the Age of Learning. This would last for many centuries until more recent times. In the year 465 AF the nation of Kardune would finally remake contact with the Dwarves of Gorut and were able to repair relations to the point that they now have trade and actively speak with one another. As we have reached the modern day, the year 1288 AF, I will now go into the current Dwarves and Gent and how they are progressing in the next section.
"We write our legacy in stone, our carved paths create legends for eons to come."
- The Royal Crest of Kardune
Nathasie Gold
