The Brokenhold

A somewhat squat, but solid looking square building about the size of a city block and four stories tall, arriving at the Brokenhold, one is confronted by its rather plain-looking stone walls and most notably the imposing gatehouse, a five-story bearded Dwarven face carved from stone. From the dwarf's eyes, two waterfalls of seawater gush forth, running as thick streams down the dwarf's cheeks, over his beard, and pooling in deep channels which run around the perimeter of the structure, acting as a moat around the neighborhood. Within the eye-sockets, dwarven sentries watch vigilantly outwards, surveying visitors who approach over the drawbridge extending out from the dwarven head's mouth, which acts a gate. Arriving closer to the gate, visitors notice that the different strands of the dwarf's beard are in fact very meticulously carved bas-reliefs depicting the great deeds of different dwarves- with accompanying runic inscriptions. Passing under the wrought iron portcullis finely smithed to look like teeth, and through the dwarf's mouth, visitors to the Brokenhold enter a wide, open-air square, flanked on all sides by the surrounding building. In the center of the square stands a statue of a faceless dwarven mother astride a tall pillar, inscribed top to bottom in runes. Surrounding the market square are a set of stables and an array of vendors, offering crafts specially produced within the Brokenhold by Dwarven craftsmen.

Demographics

The Brokenhold is exclusively inhabited by Dwarves. Of these, roughly two thirds are mountain dwarves, while the other third are hill dwarves. The Brokenhold's mountain dwarves predominantly inhabit and work in the lower levels, often below ground, while those dwarves who live on the upper levels and spend more time in the public square tend to be hill dwarves.

Government

The Brokenhold operates as a true democracy, determining its policy through elections. Internal policies are discussed and debated at the All-thing, a meeting held in the clan's spacious assembly room. While these meetings are typically open only to dwarves, and all dwarves are accorded the right to speak at an all-thing, only adult members of Clan Brokenshield are allowed to vote, in a process called Casting the Stones. These all-things act as public forums and de-facto city council meetings, and issues ranging from building and mining codes, tarrifs military affairs 
The all-thing is led by its Speaker, the government's only standing elected position, who acts as a moderator and agenda-setter for these debates, and oversees votes. As a result, the position carries immense power, prestige, and authority. The speaker also represents the Clan when dealing with its foreign policy, though as an effective vassal to the Duke of Whiteport, this duty mainly consists of representing the Clan in its permanent seat on the Whiteport Council. In addition, the Clan Speaker is supported by the elected representatives of the eight major interest groups in the Brokenhold- its Miners, Traders, Artisans, Defenders, Faithful, Brewers, Builders, and Jetters. 
For other duties and positions, the Clan specifically elects and delegates powers to individuals on an ad-hoc and as-needed basis, including its judges, military leaders, and trade representatives. While this can mean that at times the best candidates are chosen for the task, it can also be an example of the limits of consensus decision-making. Regardless, the tasks allotted to these individuals tend to be clearly established and extremely focused in scope and resources. 
The decision-making apparatus means the Clan's government operates at an exceedingly slow pace, and tends to favor short, specific solutions rather than permanent posts or institutions, and can be paralyzed with indecision over particular controversial issues or plagued with inactivity during moments of crisis if the Clan's mind is not determined. However, its emphasis on methodical public evaluation and debate of issues also means it tends towards pragmatism, meritocracy, and equality, and it rarely acts on impulse. All-things can last days or even weeks when faced with particularly controversial issues, and while monthly all-things are standard, they can be called at any time by the speaker or by a quorum of five of the representatives. Overall, by virtue of being able to direct the flow of debate and discussion and frame votes, the Speaker has immense power and influence, and can carefully manage the direction of all-things and thereby the policy of the Brokenhold. 
The Brokenhold maintains itself through duties collected on all the trade conducted within its gates, as well as through the profits of its trade missions, as the material efforts of Clan Brokenshield are devoted towards its coffers.

Defences

The Brokenhold is in fact an incredibly formidable fortress under the veneer of it's ornamentation, and in fact every aspect of its design has been carefully and meticulously considered in order to maximize its defensibility, and is widely considered impenetrable to any attacking force. The Brokenhold takes advantage of its urban surroundings, and while the surrounding city blocks may provide some cover to would be attackers, the only entrance (the gatehouse, commonly known as "the Weeping Dwarf") is situated at the end of a long street lined by row houses, which funnel any attackers through a killing field from which crossbow and larger ballista bolts fired from well-protected positions in the weeping dwarf would subject any attackers to a hail of withering fire. Any attacker choosing to run this gauntlet would find themselves confronted with the gatehouse (presumably having raised the drawbridge and portcullis), and a ten foot wide moat, which while not more than fifteen feet deep, is constantly fed by rushing water from the Weeping Dwarf and the other pumps and is slick with algae on the stone-lined channel, which threaten to sweep any attackers attempting to ford the moat downstream and into the Rush river which the moat feeds into. 
If would be attackers wisely choose to forgo a direct assault on the gatehouse and simply storm the walls, they are first still confronted with the challenge of the moat, as well as the logistical difficulties of actually getting up the walls, which stand two to three stories above the surrounding buildings.  From the walls, the small outer windows double as arrow slits and murder holes, providing the defenders with protected positions to pick off attackers on the rooftops and surrounding streets as they attempt to climb up onto the rooftops and up over the moat and onto the walls via ladders from the surrounding roofs. 
Should attackers somehow manage to actually take the walls and make it into the inner compound, they would be faced with a grinding attritional fight, as they would be forced to take the complex, effectively one large fortified blockhouse, room by room and level by level, from the fifth floors aboveground to the lower levels and mines, with each level only accessible after traversing the entirety of the previous, often constantly subjected to missile attack and traps from upper or lower levels or adjacent rooms and parts of the complex. As each level is only connected by sets of narrow, spiraling staircase (clockwise towards the aboveground levels, counterclockwise on the subterranean), even making it from one level to the next poses a challenge, as each staircase and level becomes a natural chokepoint. 
Brokenshield dwarfs live with a constant siege mentality, and while often considered more sociable and open to outsiders than other dwarves, this ease comes from the knowledge that they are utterly secure in their urban fortress should the worst occur.

Industry & Trade

The Brokenhold is a center of industrial activity and trade within Whiteport, and their goods are widely desired for their high quality and craftsmanship. The majority of their exports are in arms manufacturing, as Brokenshield smiths are generally considered to be some of the finest in the city, and swords, shields, spears, axes, and armor are all highly prized. Much of this trade is done with Whiteport's military itself, as the Brokenshield forges keep Whiteport's own men-at-arms armed and armored, but the Brokenshield's also frequently export shipments of their goods further abroad as well as to enterprising individuals and private organizations.
Brokenshield craftsmen also produce fine cookware and jewelry, as well as nonmetal goods like fine tapestries and weaving work, furniture, and signature foods and ales, the last of which is especially popular among the general population of Whiteport. Many Brokenshield craftsmen also frequently contract out for work as stoneworkers, masons, carpenters, and engineers within Whiteport itself. 
Most of Clan Brokenshield's trade is actually conducted through specific missions and shipments (often with the close cooperation of the Summer Seas Trading Company) to prearranged buyers, but it also hosts a large market in the central courtyard which is open to everyone seeking to do business with the Brokenshield's. This market also hosts a beer garden, where the homemade ales the Brokenshield's produce are sold.

Infrastructure

By far the most important infrastructure the Brokenhold possesses are its complex and constantly maintained pump system, operated by a complex series of heating and cooling mechanisms working in concert with its forges, which not only provide sewerage for the Brokenhold itself but also keep the rest of Whiteport's underground sewer network operational. These pumps also keep the underground mines which predominantly extract low-value metals like Iron, Copper, and Tin from flooding, and allow Clan Brokenshield to maintain a constant supply of fresh and salt water.  
Next, the Brokenhold also possesses the largest forges in Whiteport supported by enormous furnaces, and can produce enormous quantities of high quality metal goods using the materials it mines.
Besides its role as an industrial hub, the Brokenhold also acts as a largely self-sufficient communal housing and amenities for its roughly 30,000 inhabitants.  One of its floors is the Clan Assembly hall, where all-things are held, while it also features a massive feasting hall. While it produces very little food itself, its lower levels feature large storehouses kept well-stocked with rations acquired through outside trade and sufficient to support the Clan in a siege for up to ten years, and Clan Brokenshield also proudly maintains its own extensive underground brewery.

Assets

The Brokenhold affords all its residents a comfortable lifestyle, and provides all members of the Clan with food and shelter. To support this, the Clan maintains extensive food stores, sufficient to support itself for up to ten years during a siege. The most basic of these stores (typically reserved for emergency rations) generally consist of various preserves of smoked, salted, pickled, or otherwise cured meats, fish, and vegetables, and dry flour reserved for emergency hardtack. For living arrangements, individuals are accorded housing according to their needs. Unmarried adults are generally housed in large barracks, while families are typically given small private apartments, which they are free to furnish to their own preferences.
However, during more normal times, the Brokenhold's kitchens provide residents with daily rations of hearty bread, root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and turnips, and fresh meat (typically poultry, pork, goat, or fish), and even some fruits from Whiteport's surrounding farms, and keeps short-term and seasonal stores of these goods. From its breweries, the Brokenhold also maintains an entire room filled almost to the top with barrels and casks and kegs of its home-brewed ales, some the annual vintage, and others reserved for only the most special of occasions.
Most famously, the weapons, armor, and other metal goods produced in the Brokenhold constitute its most valuable asset, which it regularly sells to outsiders, most notably the Whiteport military and the many traders who pass through the city. It reserves a significant stockpile of its finest weapons for itself, capable of arming a regiment of 1,000 heavily armored and well-equipped, elite dwarven fighters, who use specialized pikes and shields and drill regularly. This elite force also represents one of the Brokenhold's major assets, as it can be deployed in an expeditionary capacity by decision of the all-thing, acts as a standing defensive force, and can serve as an independent unit within the larger Whiteport army. This force represents the elite and standing military force for the Brokenhold, though the clan maintains reserves of weapons and armor well in excess of that needed to arm this unit, enabling them to significantly expand their military if need-be.
The Brokenhold actually possesses fairly little coin, its leadership preferring to invest it in the Clan and most of it being converted into material goods. The Brokenhold conducts business both in coin and by barter, and aside from its sizable stockpile of mineral ore which it uses in its metalworking, the Brokenhold's supplies of precious metals are generally reserved for decor in its halls and for public monuments.

Guilds and Factions

The Brokenhold is dominated by its eight "houses," of which every adult member of Clan Brokenshield is inducted as a member. These houses are the Artisans, Brewers, Devoted, Diggers, Jetters, Miners, Traders, and Warriors. Each house, as their names suggest, preform specific duties for the Clan and are fulfill their own specific tasks. Each house elects a leader to represent them and speak on their behalf on in the Council of Nine, and while none of the houses are antagonistic towards one another, they compete with one another for authority, influence, and the Clan's resources and attentions. 
The Artisans are comprised of those within the Clan who create with their hands. Members of this house include the blacksmiths and metalworkers, jewelers, woodworkers, weavers, artists, kitchen workers, and other craftspeople. They represent one of the largest houses, but are also the most diverse, and have the most diverse interests of any of the houses and are the most unpredictable in their aims. 
Next, the Brewers are naturally responsible for overseeing the Clan's enormous brewery, but are also responsible for not only maintaining the Clan's extensive stores of ale, but also its larger storehouses containing food reserves. Most importantly, the Brewers are responsible for the Clan's social wellbeing, and work closely with the Devoted to maintain the Clan's cultural and spiritual health. 
The Devoted are those Dwarves within the Clan who focus on the spiritual wellbeing of the Clan, serving as priests and clerics, but also includes those dwarves who safeguard the Clan's institutions, culture, and legacy, including scholars, teachers, and parents. The Devoted tend to be the most conservative of the factions, and the most opposed to any radical departures from tradition. 
The Diggers, somewhat contrary to what their name might suggest, are those Dwarves responsible for the engineering and actual construction of the Brokenhold. They supervise expansions of the lower levels, and are responsible for designing the Clan's defenses. As most work as engineers, masons, stonecutters, and carpenters, they also frequently find work beyond the Brokenhold in Whiteport itself, contracting for private constructions. 
The Jetters are given the essential task of managing the Brokenhold's extensive pump system, as if not for these pumps, the Brokenhold's lower levels and mines, all of which exist below the water table, would be completely flooded. Despite this essential role, the Jetters are often seen as the odd-house-out among the eight houses, as their work with the pumps and with the wider network of sewers within Whiteport is viewed as somewhat un-dwarvish and atypical. The pumps themselves are of Gnomish design, and while the Jetters are not shunned, the Jetters association with the sewers leads many to consider them "unclean" and look down on them. The Jetters tend to be some of the most progressive of the Brokenshield houses and the most innovative, and most take pride in what they rightly perceive to be one of the most difficult and essential duties in the community. 
The Miners are generally the most monolithic of the Brokenhold houses, as their duties are almost exclusively confined to extracting resources from the Brokenholds mining projects beneath Whiteport. They often work closely with the diggers, especially on the subterranean expansions of the Brokenhold, excavating tunnels and galleries to the digger's specifications. 
The Traders tend to be the most freethinking and openminded of the Brokenshield houses, and tend to have the most contact with outsiders. While many simply work in the markets on the upper levels or in Whiteport proper, this group also includes those merchant envoys and the few dwarves who travel far abroad on business for the Clan, as well as many of its diplomatic and covert operatives. 
Finally, the Warriors represent those dwarves devoted to the Clan's defense, and are some of the most highly respected Dwarves in the settlement. While almost all of the Brokenhold's citizens are trained soldiers, more akin to reservists, the Warriors represent those elite few who make it their sole profession. While most of these standing warriors are preoccupied with drill and the immediate defense of the Brokenhold, they also often send small expeditionary parties to aid in the defense of dwarves abroad, as well as occasionally liaising with the Whiteport army in drills and operations in fulfilling its service obligations.

History

Founded in 1195 by Balian Brokenshield, the Brokenhold began as a refugee community within the City of Whiteport. Balian petitioned Duke Gawain, known as Gawain the Good, to allow his people to settle within the walls of Whiteport after they had been forced from their previous strongholds by disaster. Gawain agreed, granting Balian a collection of blocks within the city. In exchange, Balian and his craftsmen would pay for the land by equipping his army with weapons. Moreover, in exchange for the right to live by their own rules within the confines of their settlement, the Brokenshield dwarves were obligated to provide a unit of up to one thousand warriors for the Duke's army whenever he called for them. However, as a permanent vassal, the Brokenshield dwarves were also entitled to a seat on the Duke of Whiteport's council, which they still hold to this day. 
Initially, the lands in the city the Brokenshield dwarves occupied were simply a collection of blocks of Whiteport's normal houses. As most of the Brokenshield dwarves were refugees, they were eager to settle and immediately occupied the existing homes. The center of the grant was left empty as a communal meeting place, eventually growing into the Brokenhold's central market, the community developing around it. Over time, the individual homes grew together into row houses, and gradually these row houses united into a single massive building surrounding the central square. The Brokenshield dwarves, seeking to expand further, began expanding the Brokenhold into its subterranean levels, but soon found the high water table prevented virtually all mining efforts. Working in concert with a group of Gnomes from Untrington, the dwarves installed a series of pumps enabling them to use the heat from their forges to pump the water out from their mines and the subterranean levels of the Brokenhold, and the community began to construct its keep, the Weeping Dwarf, using the waters pumped from the mines to act as a moat, giving the homes and community of the Brokenhold a degree of separation from the rest of the city. Unfortunately, an initially overzealous dwarven mine collapsed when it intersected with a haphazardly dug and forgotten Whiteport sewer, causing the collapse of the buildings above and killing several Whiteporters. In the aftermath, the Dwarves were ordered to dig Whiteport is own sewer system as recompense and to avoid future confusion. Over the subsequent years, the Dwarves continued their mining and excavation efforts and proved able stewards of the sewers when called upon. Dwarves from all origins were welcomed into the Brokenhold, and the population steadily grew. The Brokenhold's construction and design were gradually and constantly refined, as over time the patchwork walls and windows of its original buildings were replaced with the uniform walls and windows presented to the outside now. Within the center of the market, some of the old patchwork buildings are still visible on the upper levels of the Brokenold. 
During the Drakehoff Terror, the Brokenshield dwarves and the Brokenhold largely escaped the worst horrors. Early on, the Brokenhold sealed itself to the outside world and refused to take in refugees, earning it the enmity of some of the general public who were left to fend for themselves. During this time, the Brokenhold's most recent fortifications, the heavy ballista, were added to the sentry posts and the Weeping Dwarf. While these heavier weapons had never previously been allowed, being seen as provocative, the Dwarves justified their addition under the dangerous circumstances in the name of their own defense, but their addition also caused some tension within the surrounding wards of the city, who feel somewhat threatened by their inclusion, and by the Duke of Whiteport, who feels they undermine and challenge his authority by suggesting the Brokenhold's sovereignty. 
Under Balian's leadership as Speaker, a position he has been elected to every decade since its founding, the Brokenhold has grown and prospered, welcoming wayward dwarves from throughout Kethenicaea and firmly enmeshing itself in Whiteport.

Tourism

Most of the visitors to the Brokenhold are traders, looking to do business with the dwarves. Brokenshield arms and armor are highly prized, and are offered for sale to any with coin for them (somewhat to the chagrin of other dwarven communities), and as a result foreign envoys and traders are also not uncommon. Whiteporters frequent visit the Brokenhold for business ventures, looking to contract with the dwarves or purchase goods from the shops and the beer garden in its market. Non-dwarves are prohibited from entry to levels above the ground floor or below ground except by special invitation.
Aside from business deals or the occasional social engagement between Brokenshield dwarves and Whiteporters, the other common group of visitors to the Brokenhold are other dwarves. Dwarves from settled clans may visit on diplomatic business or to treat with distant relatives, but many who explicitly choose to travel to the Brokenhold are landless, clanless, or wayward dwarves seeking to accept the Clan's standing offer of entry to any dwarf seeking to join.

Architecture

Aboveground, the exterior of the Brokenhold is somewhat monolithic rectangular building, boring looking aside from its ornamentation. Its walls tower four stories tall, and are made of stone cut so smoothly that although it is clear are made from individual blocks of stone, no apparent seam exists in the wall between each block. This feat is all the more impressive given the walls are not actually vertical, but actually rise at a 100 degree angle. The first floor has no apparent windows or openings aside from the gate in the Weeping Dwarf's mouth, while the upper stories feature arrow slits, similarly carved to look like helmed dwarven faces. From a number of points in the wall, water gushes forth from the apparent exhaust ports in the pumps and flows down the wall  into the moat, sweeping through the channel and down into the Rush River, the spray from the waterworks coating the first story of the outer wall in a light mist. 
On the interior of the compound, the homes actually retain some of their previous appearance, looking like any other neighborhood square in Whiteport. Some small market stalls and tables are set up in the square around the statue. A small stables exists on the ground level, hosting visiting horses, some of the Dwarf's famed Battle-Goats, as well as livestock like poultry and pork. Surrounding the square on the ground level are a collection of shops and businesses operated by the Brokenhold's traders. The second floor is the main gatehouse level and as a barracks for the Warriors. The third level aboveground serves mainly as residences, though very few citizens of the Brokenhold actually live here, most preferring to live in the subterranean levels, while the fourth level is used by craftsmen and artisans, as well as offering further residences and studios. Finally, the fifth level aboveground is used for further residences and military needs. Levels above and below ground are connected by systems of dumbwaiters operated by pulleys and levers, enabling goods and cargo to pass through small vertical shafts between levels. 
Very few outsiders are ever let into the subterranean levels of the structure unless in an official capacity, but those who are lucky enough to be allowed below enter into the Great Hall. Typically arrayed either as a practice field (if the market square is insufficient) or as a feasting and hosting hall, the Great Hall of the Brokenhold is awe inspiring. The product of almost four-hundred years of painstaking and devoted dwarven labor, the Great Hall is a work of art. The ceilings rise, vaulting upwards more than thirty feet, supported by sturdy stone columns encased in finely polished iron filigree. Along the walls, gold and silver inlaid carvings depict great dwarven heroes, legends, and myths, detailing the origins of the myriad of dwarves who come to call the Brokenhold home, along with fine works of art and sculpture, as well as the finely made ceremonial and ornamental arms and armor crafted by the Brokenshields. Along the periphery, huge fireplaces fed by the furnaces below burn and light the room alongside massive golden candelabras, and roasting meats and hearty stews cook, kept constantly replaced and at near-readiness by the kitchens below, keeping the hall a comfortable warm temperature. When set up for hosting and the day to day meals, the hall features long tables laid out and set with gold and silver plates and platters. Horn drinking cups clutter the tables, while galleries and pulpits wind around the columns, hosting musicians.
Below this level is the All-Thing, where the Clan holds all its essential gatherings and casts the stones. A huge subterranean arena almost an acre across, the All-thing is a carved from slate stone. The cavern's air is cool and damp, and is lit by torches ensconced into the walls and huge braziers filled with coals, which give the room a constant, shifting glow. In the center of the cavern rises a stone pillar and a dais with a speaker's podium with room for nine, with two, lower podiums accessible by a winding and steep staircase, and from these three specific podiums in the cavern, the speaker's voice is magnified and echoes so that from any point in the cavern the speaker is audible as though they were right next to the listener. In the center of the cavern are two sunken platforms which are actually large scales, and as the Clan casts the stones, the platforms sink under the weight and cause the pillar whose argument they correspond with to rise. Surrounding these three pillars, rings of bleacher-seats are arrayed through the cavern, offering a full 360 degree view of the speakers and central dais and affording everyone in the clan a position from which to hear the debate in the all-thing. 
The next two subterranean levels actually compose the largest residential positions of the Brokenhold, each one housing roughly 12,000 dwarves, and consist of networks of tunnels which act as thoroughfares, lit by everburning torches, linking living quarters together with public gathering spaces. Heated by vents from the forges, these levels also remain a comfortable temperature at all times. Notably, many of these homes, or at least the larger neighborhoods, have some form of running water and sewerage, operated by the pumps and forges, while public baths and saunas function as communal meeting grounds, and utilize the heat and steam from the pipes below. On these levels the walls are carefully lined and sealed with stones to prevent water from leaking in. Domesticities here are compact but comfortable and feature open floor plans with very few interior walls or chambers to divide space, usually comprising a small hearth, a raised sleeping platform, usually a stone slab lined with cushions and thick fur blankets. They also tend to possess shelves, tables, and seats carved into the stone itself. Most homes feature fine weavings, carpets, or tapestries to line the walls and floors. Sometimes these works of art feature simple geometric patterns and designs, while in other homes these tapestries are fine family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation and added to by each successive generation, and thus detail the history and legacy of specific families or individuals. In other houses, ceremonial arms or armor or refined works of art, the product of lifetimes of work, are proudly displayed. Regardless, every home reflects the importance of legacy and the pride each dwarf takes in their specific skill or craft both inside and out. 
Moving into the industrial subterranean levels of the Brokenhold, the next level is entirely devoted to the forges and those artisans who prefer to work nearby. The immense heat from the forges keeps this level in a constant, sweltering heat of almost 100 degrees, and while the dwarves who work here claim not to mind, any who stay for any significant length of time  inevitably leave drenched in sweat. On this level, the huge furnaces of the forges burn red-hot and are constantly being fed and stoked by enormous bellows, while the air has a constant acrid smell to it. Sparks fly and molten metal bubbles and hisses as it is poured and cooled, while the entire level rings with the sound of hammers and chisels on metal and stone. The furnaces themselves rise up in huge vents into the walls and ceiling, dispersing the additional heat elsewhere throughout the Brokenhold and preventing the heat from becoming truly unbearable on this level. Individual workshops and smithies and compounds line broad thoroughfares, while chains, pulleys, carts, and gigantic molds and vats support the massive refineries. Large vats of oil lie about for quenching blades, and grindstones and worktables are ever-present and littered with stray tools. Finally, surrounding the forges are huge water filled-jackets which keep them from overheating, and act as an emergency fire-suppression system. These jackets feed into the boilers on this level, which boil the water, collecting the purified condensation which is used to feed the saunas, baths, and warm and potable water in the residence levels above, and separating the salt, which is collected and sent to the storerooms to be used in preservation, while excess is sold by the traders.  
Safely below the heat and smoke of the forges are the storerooms and the brewery level. First, this level features the huge caverns carved out and stocked to the brim with supplies necessary to feed and support the Brokenhold's population day-to-day, and in the event of a longer siege, and appear from the inside to be enormous warehouses, easily rivaling those of the trading companies on Whiteport's surface. Most of these chambers are left sealed, their doors airtight, to prevent spoilage of the emergency rations and stockpiles which are stacked to the ceiling almost fifteen feet up inside. Others, like the larder, are used for more perishable rations and frequently emptied and restocked, and is large enough to fit an entire Attican Frigate, and stores all the provisions the Brokenhold uses to sustain itself day-to-day. This level also features the Brokenhold's enormous brewery, located inside another grand gallery chamber, where vats of fermenting beer, spreads of hops and grains, and a network of brewers and coopers keep a floor to ceiling wall of casks of ale fully stocked. 
Finally, below the stores are the lowest to levels of the Brokenhold; the mines and the pumps. The "mining level" more accurately only refers to the central mining complex, a huge chamber in which the minerals, gems, and ore mined from the various tunnels are processed and where all the mine-shafts originate. Carts roll in and out on tracks from deeper down the network of tunnels and mines and their contents and sorted. Huge piles of slag sit awaiting to be repurposed, while piles of iron, copper, and tin ore await refining, while surveyors work to determine new constructions and estimate mineral deposits. Below the central mining complex lies the pumping station. Here, vents from the forges funnel heat into an enormous system of iron pipes, valves, and pressure locks, carefully tended by pump technicians walking along catwalks above the dark, ever rising salt-water below. The pumps, back up pumps, and back up to the back ups, booming rhythmically, feed the water up and out of the Brokenhold first through iron pipes and then into shafts carved into the very rock itself,  eventually pumping the water through water filters on the forge level for the complex's fresh-water needs, and pumping the excess out through the weeping dwarf and other shafts leading to the surface which keep the moat constantly filled with rushing water, and keep the entire complex from flooding.

Geography

The Brokenhold is situated in the heart of Whiteport on an area roughly equivalent to four city blocks which rise on a very slight hill over the surrounding three block radius. Due to this hill, the moat fed by the inner pumps naturally runs around the perimeter of the structure before rushing down a narrow canal which runs though the market district and into the Rush River and subsequently White Bay. The surrounding houses and neighborhoods's buildings are generally constructed of a mixture of stone, wood, and plaster, and tend not to stand quite as tall as the Brokenhold, and therefore the Brokenhold rises from the surrounding Whiteport skyline slightly, overlooking the city streets below while standing slightly apart from them behind its walls and moat. Its mines are now dug sufficiently deep to avoid putting the city at risk due to mine collapses through careful planning and design, and run well below even the deepest vaults and basements of Whiteport's citizens (though not yet reaching the underdark). The Brokenhold's geography actually poses its greatest challenge, as its location so close to the ocean means that while the first two subterranean levels (the Great Hall and All-Thing) are above the water table by virtue of the Brokenhold's hill, the rest all lie below it and are at constant risk of flooding should the pumps fail.

Natural Resources

The Brokenhold lacks most natural resources, being centered in the center of the city, but has ready access to most common ores and minerals from its mines, as well as the occasional pocket of precious metal or stones it uncovers in its mines. It also has constant access to supplies of salt water which they can refine into salt and potable water.

Founding Date

1195

Alternative Name(s)

Dwarvenward

Type

Ward

Population

30,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Clan Brokenshield

Location under

City of Whiteport

Owner/Ruler

Balian Brokenshield

Owning Organization

Clan Brokenshield