Mror Holds

Over ten thousand years ago, all dwarves lived in the deep domains far beneath the Ironroot and Hoarfrost Mountain ranges. During the reign of Lord Kordran Mror, there was an unsuccessful coup. The twelve leaders of the unrest as well as their families were exiled to the surface, and magical seals and wards were set to prevent them from ever returning. A thirteenth clan, Clan Kundarak, was tasked with protecting and maintaining the wards until such time a clan would prove itself worthy of rejoining the great kingdom.
Centuries later, when humans first spread across Khorvaire, they paid little attention to the feuding dwarven clans in the mountains. It wasn't until Karrn ir'Wynarn, son of King Galifar I and styled "the Conqueror," set his sights on the mountains and their riches that this finally changed. Weakened by in-fighting and facing one of history's greatest generals, the dwarves were soon subjugated and their lands added to the territories of Karrnath. Now forced to work together under the peace of the king, the dwarves thrived. The clans grew prosperous and dwarven ideas and culture (not to mention the dwarves themselves) spread throughout Galifar.
Seeing their bretheren at last put away their petty squabbles, the Kundarak opened the seals and allowed all dwarves passage to the glorious kingdom below. To their horror, they found only ruins. At some point, perhaps during or perhaps long after the Daelkyr War, the deep kingdom was invaded. Its inhabitants fought a long war with the Daelkyr and lost. The ancient dwarven cities and the vast wealth and knowledge they contain had been claimed by abominations, but the clans had sworn fealty to the kingdom of Galifar, and dwarves are loathe to break an oath.
The advent of the Last War, appropriately, changed everything, however. Since Galifar, as a unified kingdom, no longer existed, the dwarven clanlords (at the first meeting of the Iron Council in 914 YK) declared their independence. The Treaty of Thronehold ratified the nation 82 years later.

Structure

Twelve dwarf clans make up the Iron Council. Although House Kundarak technically is one of these twelve, by tradition they remain neutral observers. As the wealthiest, most influential clan, Kundarak usually gets what it wants anyway.
One of the original twelve exiled clans, Clan Noldrun, vanished entirely around 400 years ago. Their former holdings are rumored haunted and are shunned to this day.

Public Agenda

The clans of Mror aren't particularly active in Khorvaire politics and are somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. This isn't due to xenophobic attitudes or even surliness. The goal of each of the twelve clans is to retake the deep holds and restore the glory of the ancient dwarven empire. Unfortunately, the secondary goal of each clan is to make sure the other clans don't make any progress in achieving their goals. This takes up pretty much all of their attention.

Assets

The mountains in and around Mror contain rich veins of ore (both precious and non), many varieties of gemstones, and even the occasional ancient artifact.

Founding Date

914 YK

Type

Geopolitical, State

Government System

Oligarchy

Power Structure

Confederation

Executive Body

The Iron Council

Next Notes: In our campaign world, the dwarven language is Yiddish. Just like in the U.S., everyone in Khorvaire knows a few dwarven words even if they don't know they're dwarven. The Mror Holds are a tiny bit like Israel in the sense that dwarves everywhere else are proud to have a homeland, but are in no hurry to go live there. There's no religious component to dwarves, so the comparison pretty much ends there. There's no single accent for dwarves. Karrnathi dwarves might sound southern, for example. Dwarves from Mror should sound like Gal Godot or Netanyahu, but none of us can do that accent so instead they sound like Woody Allen, Sigmund Freud, or Bernie Sanders.