House Kundarak
If you want to keep something safe-jewels, secrets, prisoners-Kundarak is there to help. The Defenders Guild of House Kundarak trains locksmiths, security specialists, and more. It maintains the prison of Dreadhold, along with a number of smaller prisons. As useful as these services are, it's the Banking Guild that truly defines the house. Kundarak's lands in the Mror Holds include deep veins of precious metals, which the dwarves used to establish the banking industry of Khorvaire. Anyone who makes a living from coin-from bankers to goldsmiths-likely learned their skills at House Kundarak. The security of banks bearing the Kundarak manticore emblem is legendary. The house also provides a special service to those who can afford it: a system of extradimensional vaults, allowing a client to store their goods in one location and retrieve them at any other Kundarak enclave.
As civilization develops and expands, the need grows for security and standardization in the commerce between peoples. The dwarves of House Kundarak understand this better than anyone else. The power and wealth of this house stem not just from its influence over banking and finance, but from the safeguarding of all valuables. The rich veins of gold, iron, copper, and other minerals found in their hold in the Ironroot Mountains have made the Kundarak dwarves some of the wealthiest individuals on Khorvaire, and the house has spent centuries parlaying that wealth into a financial empire.
Structure
The Kundarak dwarves hail from an ancient clan structure. As a result, House Kundarak is organized somewhat differently from the system of viceroys, ministers, and seneschals that has become the standard of dragonmarked hierarchy.
The current head of House Kundarak is Morrikan d’Kundarak, referred to as baron by those outside the house and as lord by those within it. Titles and positions within the house are hereditary, and are always passed down from father to son (or, in rare cases, to nephew) within the Kundarak line. Lord Morrikan is a shrewd and patient patriarch who has ruled his house for over a century. When the Last War broke out, Morrikan’s voice from his observer’s seat at the Iron Council was said to be the fi rst to whisper of independence.
Below the lord are two additional positions of authority. Chieftain is another hereditary title, borne by the ranking member of a non-Kundarak bloodline within the house. Six house chieftains rule at any given time. Because the bloodlines within the house operate primarily in their own geographic areas across Khorvaire, chieftains end up taking on the standard role of viceroys within House Kundarak. Lord Kundarak is the chieftain for his own bloodline, and thus acts as viceroy for the house in the Mror Holds.
In ancient times, the hearthwarden was responsible for “keeping the house” of the clan. Today, the title is held by the administrator of a House Kundarak enclave. The majority of hearthwardens are female, and most are spellcasters. Hearthwardens are elected from within the house, but must be approved by the house lord.
House Kundarak is composed of nine bloodlines, including the Kundarak, the Durbannek, the Ghedin, and the Tuvodni. All nine can trace their lineage back to the first wardens who gained the surface world alongside the exiled clans.
Culture
Rogues, experts, and aristocrats are well represented within House Kundarak. Given the high martial standards of the dwarf race, many have at least one level of warrior or fighter as well. Those of the house who pursue the spellcasting arts typically take up the path of the artificer or the bard.
All dwarves take great pride in their work and family, and as a member of House Kundarak, your honor is inextricably bound to both. You know the legends of your house and people as well as you know your own name, but threading through all those legends is the sense of worth that marks what it means to be a Kundarak. You are a role model among your people—a member of a clan that never claimed a crown yet has always managed to quietly lead.
Within the clans, some mistake your confidence for bravado, but you accept their jealousy for what it is. Outside the clans, you are typically shown the respect—or outright awe—that the position of your house demands. Though some speak in dark whispers of Kundarak as profiteers and hoarders of wealth, you dismiss them easily enough. For in the end, only those who have earned the respect of the Kundarak are worth your worry.
A member of a house of warders and protectors, you look upon unprovoked aggression with disdain. For long years, House Kundarak watched an endless cycle of reprisals decimate its people, and its stomach for barbarism is long gone. Savagery is for savages, not for dwarves of honor.
At the same time, your sense of honor means that you rarely back down from a fight—or at least from a worthy fight. When attacked, you are steadfast in your resolve and more than capable of standing your ground. As a Kundarak, you are fiercest when defending the lives, homes, or honor of those close to you.
The heirs of Kundarak are polite to a fault, particularly when dealing with potential clients or members of the other dragonmarked houses. Committed to maintaining the honor and reputation of their house, they understand the potential danger of a misplaced word. This is not to say that those of the house do not have their own ambitions and agendas, but all of Kundarak understands the critical importance of appearance.
Public Agenda
For millennia, House Kundarak watched its Mror kin claw their way out of barbarism. Today, these proud stonefolk know all too well that when battles must be fought, few respond as brutally and as effi ciently as the Mror dwarves. As a result, few houses try harder than Kundarak to avoid conflict, and characters are more likely to encounter House Kundarak by seeking its assistance than running afoul of its plans. In all things, the house sees unity, not conflict, as the means to success.
The manticore that adorns the Kundarak seal is the symbol of an old legend. In the early days of the dwarves’ exile, the manticores of the Ironroot Mountains were dispassionate observers of the conflict between clans. Then, in early skirmishes between the clans and the Jhorash’tar orcs, the dwarves found themselves steadily pushed back under waves of orc infantry better suited to fighting on the steep mountain slopes. Faced with a real possibility that the clans might not survive a coming midwinter assault, the Kundarak set out to forge an alliance with the manticores. In exchange for magically warding their mountain lairs against the aberrations that hunted there, Kundarak got these creatures to agree to aid the dwarves’ cause.
The dwarves of House Kundarak are the captains of finance and the masters of protective design. Not only does the house stand at the heart of Khorvaire’s system of banking, it also claims the most gifted and dedicated security specialists in the world. It produces few notaries, bookkeepers, and scribes of its own, preferring instead to pass on such tasks through its long-standing alliance with the gnomes of House Sivis.
Given the amount of wealth for which it is responsible, as well as its sometimes contentious relationship with dwarves outside its ranks, House Kundarak is one of the most insular of the dragonmarked houses. Foundlings are allowed to rejoin the house, but rarely will a Kundarak member sponsor one without a detailed explanation of lineage.
Assets
The first and greatest House Kundarak enclave is the stronghold of Korunda Gate, nestled high in the mountains of Kundarakhold. Nearly twenty thousand dwarves make their homes here, giving the house its own standing army should it ever need one. In the event that Kundarak’s martial and magical prowess proves insufficient (a toe-curling thought), residents of Korunda Gate can flee to the extensive vaults beneath the city, where much of the house’s wealth—and that of select clients—is stored.
Korunda Gate is large enough to require not just one, but an entire council of hearthwardens. All political, legal, and executive decisions still rest with Lord Kundarak and his family, but the council administers the day-to-day operations of the city as an enclave. The head of this council is given the honorific of matron, a position presently held by Matron Jakela Tuvodni, the stern but much beloved “hearthwarden of hearthwardens.”
History
For as long as anyone can remember, the dwarves of Khorvaire have been a race divided. Long before they came into their own as masters of the Mror Holds, the dwarves of the Ironroot Mountains were locked in bitter infighting. For some seven thousand years, clan fought against clan over disputed territory, mineral rights, and especially honor. Dwarven pride is strong even today, but in an older age of blood and steel, pride was a way of life—and death.
Though the origins of the dwarf kingdoms of Khorvaire are lost to history, it is known that a unified dwarf nation once spread deep beneath the Ironroot Mountains. Within this kingdom, it came to pass that twelve warriors were exiled for barbarism and unrest, forced to the surface along with their followers by Lord Kordran Mror. The gateways to the kingdom below were closed off by powerful magic, the dwarves told that they would remain in exile until they had found the honor that their barbarism prevented them from attaining. Alongside the exiles, a clan of wardens was sent to the lands above to watch over these gates—a clan by the name of Kundarak.
The mythic founder of House Kundarak was a stonemason who built the first shelter for the exiles. While House Sivis estimates that Kundarak’s dragonmark appeared less than three thousand years ago, in the stories, Kundarak had always borne the mark and used its powers to protect their people. Dwarves of all clans relied on Kundarak, both for wise counsel and their expertise in building. Kundarak laid the foundations of the fortresses that stood against the armies of Galifar.
But soon after Bal Dulor, Clan Kundarak became House Kundarak, expanding its influence across Khorvaire. While they held onto their ancestral lands, the Korth Edicts required Kundarak to sever its ties to the other clans, putting the interests of its clients ahead of those of the Mror. While this caused initial tension, it also brought an influx of gold and influence, and served as a bridge between the holds and the outside world. Kundarak helped bring dragonmarked services to the Mror Holds, and also helped build connections between houses and clans—House Deneith and the Droranath, House Jorasco and the Frosthaven clans. So while there was some estrangement, the clans generally accepted Kundarak’s new role—though Soldorak has long decried Kundarak as abandoning traditional values and selling out the dwarves.
House Kundarak has no seat on the Iron Council and is not considered a Mror clan. Kundarak has done its best to stay out of the War Below, though Kundarak engineers played an important part in building defenses during the War Below, and were well paid for their services. Despite the lure of treasures and the mysteries of the past, Kundarak has no interest in courting disaster beneath the very seat of its power; it has fortified all deep portals beneath its spires. Should it choose to send expeditions below, it would do so with extreme care and caution.
Today, House Kundarak’s affluence and the power of the Mark of Warding cause the house to be held in high esteem. Its clients depend on the house seal that endorses a Kundarak letter of credit as much as they depend on the power of the arcane lock that protects what that credit can buy. Like House Sivis, House Kundarak has a vested interest in remaining (or at least appearing to remain) neutral in its dealings with the other dragonmarked houses, as well as the rulers of the Five Nations. Were this public integrity to be compromised, Khorvaire’s entire fi nancial system would suffer.
Type
Geopolitical, Great house
Alternative Names
Dwarven House of Warden
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Controlled Territories
Related Species
