The Founding of Gungarad

Founding

In the wake of a terrible earthquake, the surviving dwarves of Kulduun arrive in the southern Frosthalda. After liberating the isolated communities there from the dominance of a brutal warlord, they found a new settlement and society. The Earldom of Gungarad emerges, a young and determined state eager to carve a prosperous future for itself.

In the Nordskurl Peaks, the ancient dwarven city of Kulduun is tragically brought crumbling down by a catastrophic earthquake that all but swallows the city whole as chasms open up in the very bedrock of the mountain. Fortunately, a number of survivors are able to flee in time thanks to the prescience and warning of Damon, a priest of Ouma. He leads his ragged band north and into the stretch of lowlands bordering the Frosthalda. Here they come across numerous tribes and isolated hamlet communities under the domination of a brutal warlord. Damon and his brother Hrod forge alliances with the locals and eventually lead an uprising against the warlord and put an end to him, though Damon is slain in the battle.   Together, the dwarves and the now free people of the eastern lowlands permanently merge together, and around a rocky hilltop near the great Sivyrne River they found a new settlement. Hrod is named the ruler of the city, named Gungarad, meaning "resolute" in old dwarvish. Over the coming centuries, Gungarad grows and begins to prosper, though they are forever guarding their fledgling realm from raiders and savages from the Frosthalda and the Nordskurl Peaks.