Kinbarag, or the Underempire

The Underempire of the Dwarvenkind, also known as Kinbarag (Home of the Dwarfs), after the name of their mountain holdings in Vespria, is a recovering Empire that is witnessing a phase of expansion. They have recently (90 years ago) regained control of their main Sky Citadels, ending the resurfacing of their polity. The Underempire develops vertically, from the highest Sky Citadels to the deepest outposts, where the Grey Dwarves carry the weight of the Dwarven expansion.
The Low King, Addohr VII, is the central authority, of power and respect indisputed, but each hold and clan is given self-management. The sprawling underempire is kept united by the King's officials visiting the cities to collect tithes and to overview the general security of the population.
The Underempire is an apparently millennial entity, whose foundation would go back to a time before the first human civilizations, but in reality it has crossed the last centuries in political and social decline, also due to the civil wars that have dotted its history.
The Low King is above all a moral and military authority, before being a political authority. In fact, each stronghold is substantially autonomous, while formally respecting the office of the Lower Kingdom, which has assumed the effective leadership of Kinbarag only in times of war or serious crises for which the various Clans consider it necessary to act together.
While each Hold has self-management, with Clans and Lords mostly concerning themselves and their own, the Exarchs are those who keep Kinbarag a single nation. They are scholars, theologians and stewards who freely roam the Underempire to overview that Kinbarag's laws and tradition are respected, the Elders honoured and Torag praised. They are all indeed officially clergymen of Torag's Church, and answer only to the Low King and their Herald of the Deep, the highest religious authority of Torag under the earth.
Private property is one of the cornerstones of the dwarven civilization. Thefts, embezzlement, robbery are severely punished, often with exile. The extraction of rare metals and precious stones from the many mines that penetrate innumerable tunnels in the depths of the earth form the backbone of the dwarven economy. Because of Torag's teachings, craftsmanship is highly respected, although it is under pressure from the growing industrialization of some production processes. Trade forms another source of income for many dwarfs. Foreign trade is managed exclusively in the Sky Citadels. In fact, the concept of dwarven private property has particular characteristics. Every dwarven citizen has the right to what is theirs and to do what they want, but the goods that do not belong to a Dwarf, belong to nobody, so they can be freely appropriated by whoever finds them. Therefore, it can be concluded that the main feature of the notion of private property for the Underempire is that it does not extend to foreigners. Although the Dwarves have no problem trading with each other or abroad, and despite the famous Dwarven duty of hospitality, the Underempire itself remains a hostile environment for foreign merchants.
It is not impossible for non-Dwarf to become a Dwarf. Being adopted to a Dwarven family, or going through the apprenticeship along the lines of Torag's teachings, make it so that the individual is considered a Dwarf like the others. Mixed marriages are rare, but not unprecedented. In such cases, the whole offspring is considered Dwarf is raised in the Underempire, or Dwarf is born by a Dwarf mother if raised abroad. Non-dwarf clerics of Torag are also held in high esteem and granted with all sorts of protection.