Tar'Thor

You are overwhelmed with a dry warmth and the fantastic smells of smoked meat, roasting potatoes and fresh bread coming from the brewing of strong dwarven ale. The cavern walls are brightly lit and dotted with openings where windows to shops lay, their metallic and jeweled wares glittering in the firelight. Buildings, platforms, stairs and bridges jut out and web together underlit by a bubbling lava lake. Another day in Tar'Thor

— Excerpt from the Underworld Travellings of Jokund

The city of Tar'Thor is an ancient Dwarven domain, the largest underground city known in Estia built over the ages through pure dwarven sweat and industry.

History

Tar'Thor has long been held in dwarven religion as the birthplace of Dwarven kind, forged from the stone and magma in the central chamber itself. While there is some evidence of the ancient architecture within the city, Dwarves are builders and improvers and don't always hold the past sacred and so some scholars dispute the age of the city.

Tar'Thor, also called the mountain city, is also known by the elvish translation Talnúra although the inhabitants do not prefer this name.

The city archives mark the oldest tablets from being as old as ten thousand years, documenting events that took place during the Age of Gods and the Age of Chaos but going quieter during the Illimyrian Dynasty. It wasn't a secret that Tar'Thor begrudgingly accepted the rule of the Elves, but they closed off their city and kept to themselves throughout that time, concerned with keeping their autonomy despite the Elven rule. As a result, their historical records during this time are very localized. After the dissolution of the Estian Empire, Tar'Thor reopened its gates to travel and trade while maintaining its autonomy as a city-state.

Industry & Trade

Like most dwarven settlements, Thorian dwarves make their living from the stone in which they dwell. Quarrying rock and mining ores are the traditional trades, but Thorians are a proud people and feel only they know how to best use the resources which they pull from the mountain. As a result other trades around refining, smelting, masonry and smithing have expanded greatly in the undermountain city, and despite Tar'Thor being a hotbed of trading, one cannot buy raw goods and resources from Tar'Thor but instead must pay a premium for end products.

The occupations of the Thorian dwarves are typically linked to the family clan, although this is more a tradition than a rule or social pressure. However it is simply not done for a Thorian to change professions or maintain more than one skillset. Trades are handled in a sort of guild fashion, with the workers themselves deciding on how to conduct business as a group. Miners for example form small companies who will maintain claims, mine the resources, transport and sell the goods for a market-based price. As a group, all companies submit to safety rules or they may have their claims revoked. But miners will change the resources they mine for as demand changes with few exception.

Refiners and smelters however built a commonshop, a cavern dedicated solely to their work and they share the machinery and tools required to complete their work while typically working independently by contract.

Districts

While Tar'Thor is an underground dwarven dwelling, the city is well organized and operates well within specialized districts.

Market Districts

The largest cavern at the heart of the mountain that connects both to the north and south gate is the Open Market District. This cavern is one of the only areas of the city where visitors are permitted without escort, and in recent years trusted foreign vendors have been allowed to set up shops to services citizens. The cavern hosts Inns, taverns, eateries, music halls and a diverse array of shops and traders.
There are two secondary market districts, but neither are open to visitors without a Thorian escort. The first is a raw materials market known as the Smiths Market. Generally speaking dwarves do not prefer to sell or export raw goods, ores & gems, but rather form them into items they can fetch a much higher price for. So the Smiths Market is more limited to trade between Thorian families. The final market district is the Runics Market, again a closed market but this one deals primarily in information, knowledge, and arcana. Books and scrolls, runes and arcanic songs are bought and sold in the Runics Market.

Temple District

Temple District may be a misnomer, the district is really one large temple campus dedicated to the dwarven creator god, Kawgawne. The campus contains increasingly sacred building carved and built out of the cavern where various parts of Kawgawne's worship take place. There are several clerical groups within the district: emmisaries, humblers, forgers and keepers.

Clan Districts

Smaller caverns that circle the perimeter of Tar'Thor are dedicated to the clans. Each clan cavern is like a small towns, consisting of homes, apartments, a ruling manor, a few shops and workshops and a community square. Each clan cavern hosts a ruling clan as well as many smaller clans.

Government

The city is ruled by a king as a city-state primarily, with several mining outposts in other mountains along the range. Thorian kings manage the laws and affairs of the city with the assistance of an appointed council and a strong city guard. Uniquely, Thorian kings have some limitation placed upon their powers; they do not choose their successor and they may not declare war. The city guard's sole purpose is to defend the city from outside attacks and handle lawbreakers when necessary. Instead another group, known as the Inzawyèm are responsible for making declarations of war as well as determining the line of succession.

Defenses

Tar'Thor has been historically considered an impregnable fortress. With only two gates to the mountain city, one in the north and one in the south, the natural chokepoints make for an easy defense from the outside. The main threat to the city comes from below, where the lines between underground and underdark begin to blur. Again, dwarves designed their caverns to rely on natural choke points to make defense a simpler affair, but they do not slack in maintaining strong warriors and an abundant supply of well-crafted weapons and armor for the days of war.

Alternative Name(s)

Binmaotome, Talnúra, City of the Mountain

Type

Large city

Inhabitant Demonym

Thorian

Owner/Ruler

Kerjènw Garn

Owning Organization

Inzawyèm

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