The kith of Krag-a-Krach, especially the Hill Dwarves who founded the nation, are known for their fine, ornamental craftsmanship. The Krag-a-Krachi (or just Krachi for short) are cut off from the rest of the continent by a spur of the Skulls and have thus avoided a majority of the wars waged between the nations. Due to their relative peace, the Krachi have focused their craft on creating beautiful arts of precious metals abundant in the southern foothills of the Skulls. Their most valuable export, however, is Gromril. Gromril is found in only 2 places in all of Morgrave: somewhere up in the Wuthering Wights that only the Elves know about and down in the Viscera, which the Krachi cultivate for Gromril extraction.
Treasures of Gold and Silver
The Krachi love to enjoy a fine piece of art. They're drawn to it like lizards to a warm rock. Though there is no tangible benefit to being in the presence of something lovely, all Krachi, especially the Dwarves, display a serenity from simply being around it. There is competition among the artisans of each trade to create the greatest masterpieces, and in Krag-a-Krach there are many schools dedicated to artistry of all forms. In the capital of Cair Bolun there are no fewer than 43 individual schools for the arts, 9 of those being schools for gold and silversmithing.
These schools do not usually get along. Acting somewhat like the noble houses of Lustria, they may form alliances with each other to drive another school out of business for mutual benefit, but usually it's a dog eat dog world in the sphere of Krachi art school politics. Some schools teach different styles of smithing, but most teach essentially the same style, but perhaps with a different process to reach the end result, and some teach exactly the same thing - yet each school with swear to the hilt that their style is best and that the others are simply dreck. A visitor in Krag-a-Krach would be wise to avoid commenting on art unless they are well educated on the minutia, lest they end up in the center of a brawl.
Gromril, the Metal of Kings
Gromril, the greatest metal available in all of Morgrave, is cultivated by the Krachi in their outposts in the Viscera. Dromdorry is chief among those outposts; it's a large trading post located at the mouth of the Whiskey Water, the same river on which Cair Bolun lies. Spreading out from Dromdorry are many satellite outposts, all with one job: to grind the local flora to a pulp to extract the Gromril located within (called 'pulping' by the workers).
Despite research into a better solution, pulping appears to be the only way to reliably extract Gromril from the ground; it doesn't come in deposits, instead it appears as small grains of rust in the soil. The plants suck it up with their nutrients and the retain it in their cells. Gromril rust has a deep brown-red pigmentation, which the plants also gain, turning the normally green jungle into a red jungle, hence the name 'the Viscera'.
It takes hundreds of man-hours to extract and process enough metal to make a single dagger of Gromril, which is why the Krachi charge so much for it. Very few people in all the world can afford it, and the nobles and kings and queens that do have a piece made from Gromril show it off usually as the main piece in their collection - the swirling wavy blue and pearl pattern of Gromril is spoken of like a fairy tale by most people. But of course Gromril isn't only decorative, it's quality is many times greater than steel and the warlords and warrior kings and queens who have worn it throughout the centuries are inevitably spoken of in legends.
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