he dwarves were once one people, a race of stout, broad, and hairy humanoids who came from the north. But eventually, the dwarves ventured south, dispersing across the Wingspan Mountains and her foothills. Those who settled the mountains became the
Urdunnir and the dwarves of the flush valley were the
Azer. How these two formerly harmonious civilizations came to war is hotly debated among scholars and historians—for every dwarf will give you a different story.
The fighting takes place across the Sidhe hills and foothills between the kingdom
Urdun to the north and the great walled Azer city-state
Surntra to the south. Aviates from the
Wyvern Corp fly up from Surntra on their winged mounts, fire-bombing ground troops and any vulnerable Urdunnir settlements they can reach. In escalation, Urdun created
Binders, dwarves who are enchanted with proprietary runes that connect them to an elemental, power feeding back and forth in a sustainable loop. These Binders devastate the battlefield, coming from above and within and beneath the battlefield, routing troops and changing the landscape irrevocably as they pass. Although the intensity of the conflict waxes and wanes, and the front lines of the war can shift drastically, there is never a moment of peace on the battlefield between the two great dwarven kingdoms. And silence is only a momentary reprieve before certain death.
The Conflict
Prelude
The Urdunnir Kingdom and Surntra had long treaties of peace and trade between them for hundreds of years prior to the conflict. When Surntra was at war with their centaur neighbors to the west, Urdun lent aid, sending three hundred of their Stone Fists—a legendary order of battle-toughed Urdunnir warriors carrying armor of stone and weapons of rare obsidian. With Urdun's aid, Surntra beat back the invaders. Urdun subsequently sent foreign aid to Surntra in the form of able bodies to work alongside the Azer in the building of the Brim, Surntra's famously impenetrable outer wall.
However, decades later, when the Mountain Giants of the Wingspan Mountains rose up and stormed Urdun with towering soldiers five times their size, Surntra repeatedly declined Urdun's request for aid. The treaty was broken.
The Mountain Giants took captives in their raids, slave flesh for labor, for sacrifice in the name of their war gods, and to feast upon in victory. Less than two years after the war with the giants began, Urdun fell. It took five years for Urdun to throw off their shackles. They channeled deep magic from the elements from which they were born and defeated the Mountain Giants with druidic magic and their infamously sharp obsidian blades smuggled to the former warriors in their bondage. Their victory was bittersweet and the monarchs of Urdun nurtured a root deep rot of betrayal towards Surntra. The young King at the time, Ikram the Temperate, vowed independence once more for Urdun and the taxing fourfold of all goods to and from Surntra in recompense for their oathbreaking.
THE DEICIDE OF AASTERINIAN
In -100 CA, the heir to the throne of Urdun was dying. She was born sickly and failed to grow healthy even when her mother Queen Jumanah had servants and soldiers scouring Astoria for skilled healers and magical remedies. No solution was viable. On her deathbed, Her Highness Rayyan promised her hand in marriage to whoever could keep her from the Raven Queen's soon embrace. Only one person was successful in their quest, but she would doom Urdun for another hundred years of war.
Thana Dawnbreaker was a Storm Caller, an order of druid-warriors who called the power of the storms in battles, leashing lightning from their swords and bursts of disorienting thunder into crowds of enemy soldiers. Most tales tell of her win in the Battle of Imskray where she felled two giants herself by her own blade, the legendary
Bracer of Mim. After the battle, Princess Rayyan bestowed upon Thana the title of a baronet. Baronet Thana took to heart her princess's challenge of finding a cure and set off on a quest to the Wingspan Mountains with only her loyal weapon by her side.
Her quest—written herself by Thana—was later published as
The Brass Heart. She overcame many challenges on her journey, including allying with a clan of Grimlocks within the Underdark, bringing them along on her quest. With the help of the
Dragonsbane Grimlock Clan, Thana found the lair of the dragon deity
Aasterinian and chased her into the mountains. The party killed the dragon at the landmark of what is now called
Wyrmfall Lake, a massive crater where the dragon fell to her death. Thana lost her arm in the battle as well as her stalwart companion Mim but gained the heart of the dragon goddess. The brass heart was brought to the princess and, though this part of the story is heavily edited, the princess is cured and marries Thana.
To the people of Urdun, this is a story of heroic feats and the legacy of their royal line, but to Surntra it was the deicide of their Grinning Goddess, a member of their draconic pantheon. The Grinning Chantry of Aasternian were in uproar and grief over the death of their patron goddess. The nobles of Surntra balked at the temerity of slaughtering one of their sacred dragons. Even the common people were in protest. Aasterinian was known to be a champion of the lowborn and the destitute as well as the youngest and more peaceable of the Draconic Pantheon. Two months after Aasternian's death, the then monarch of Surntra sent their two-foot-long beard to the Queen of Urdun as a declaration of war.
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