Ankhura
The ancient Ankhuran civilization existed before the arrival of humans to the lands now known as the Gtsang Prefecture, and continues to exist today, deeply entrenched among the grim slopes of the western Tsendarkar Mountains, with the mighty Ithanic Fortress as its imposing face to the outside world.
Though they are physically similar to the dwarves elsewhere in the world, the Ankhurans are quite distinct culturally, leading some to suggest that they may be the direct descendants of the original dwarves, living in relative isolation, unchanged while the rest of the dwarven peoples evolved to new lands and climates. The Ankhurans themselves are notoriously tight-lipped about their history and hold the secrets of their subterranean realm close to their chests.
History and People
The earliest history of the Ankhurans is shrouded in the impenetrable mists of time. They present a dilemma to historians, as their civilization was well established and thriving when humans arrived in the region more than 15,000 years ago, before the legendary appearance of the dwarves in eastern Akados. This suggests that either the Gtsang histories are incorrect or the Ankhuran dwarves predate their eastern relatives.
The Ankhurans themselves are no help as they simply claim that “we have always been here” and let it go at that. As the prehistory of the Ankhurans remains a sealed puzzle box, the only option left to scholars is to study the dwarves’ history since their first contact with humans.
The dwarves were quick to make contact as soon as they were aware of the newcomers’ presence, dispatching envoys into the hill country and establishing diplomatic relations with Gtsang. Representatives were taken to the Ankhuran realm where they witnessed the wonders of a truly ancient land that lay largely hidden in the mountains with only the impressive Ithanic Fortress visible to outsiders.
A stern but goodhearted people, the Ankhurans watched the Gtsang develop as decades stretched into centuries, then into millennia, and engaged in low-level trade and occasional cultural exchange. When the wise but cruel Red King Amnu-Paket rose to power as a result of corruption and evil in the heart of Gtsang’s rulers, the Ankhurans were alarmed. Safe for the moment in their mountain fastness, the dwarves knew that it was only a matter of time before the greedy Red King came for them. Though confident of their ability to defend themselves, the Ankhurans knew that any conflict would devastate the region and cost countless lives. So they began a quiet but determined campaign to undermine Amnu-Paket and aid those in Gtsang who resisted.
When the uprising finally came, Gtsang warriors and priests alongside Ankhuran soldiers assailed Amnu-Paket’s forces and drove his minions from power and pursued them into the mountains and laid siege to the seemingly-impenetrable Tu Chai Palace.
There, the Ankhurans shared some of their most ancient secrets and allowed the Anahbi priests — Gtsang spellcasters who had thrown their lot against the Red King — to cast a powerful ritual that destroyed Amnu-Paket and freed the nation from his tyranny. Grateful to the dwarves for their help, the Gtsang priests swore that the knowledge they had been given would never be used for evil purposes, though rumors persist that the powerful Ankhuran rituals were transcribed and saved in a great book that remains well-guarded in the city of Duam.
Fortunately for the dwarves and everyone else, the priests kept their promise, and harmony reigned in relations between the two nations. When the Xha’en Hegemony was founded in 2700 XC (1398 I.R.), the Ankhurans were once more concerned with the growing power of the humans and immediately dispatched emissaries to secure their independence and lay the groundwork for peaceful relations. The Xha’en had little interest in conquering an underground realm full of dwarves and so readily agreed. Today, Ankhuran armor, weapons, arts, and crafts can be found throughout the Hegemony, commissioned directly from dwarven artisans.
Religion
As with most everything else, the dwarves are relatively tight-lipped about their religion. It is known that they are monotheistic and revere a single creator god named Masakhan, and their reverence for the heroes of the past suggests that they believe that especially accomplished dwarves join their creator as divine beings devoted to law and good. This is an earned status — those who do not achieve greatness in their lifetime are reincarnated and given another opportunity, while those who are evil and unredeemable are snuffed out and cease to exist, thus making certain that only the truly good can return. Priests provide guidance to worshippers regarding proper conduct, behavior, and the right path to true goodness.
Trade and Commerce
The Ankhurans are not an especially isolationist nation, nor are they overly friendly with outsiders. They retain a typically dwarven skill in trade and craftsmanship, however, and have maintained mercantile relationships with the region’s humans since their arrival some 15,000 years ago. More recently, the Castorhagi of Bream approached the dwarves, opening up some commerce and further cementing the status of the Bream colonies as a permanent fixture in the region.
There is little that the humans harvest or manufacture that the dwarves need, so trade is mostly in terms of gold, silver, and exotic items that tickle the Ankhurans’ stern fancy. Fabrics, works of art, unusual foods such as citrus fruit, and poultry are all traded for Ankhuran crafts, tools, weapons, armor, and mechanical devices. Trade usually takes place in human lands, or at the Ithanic Fortress, which is normally accessible to humans by sea.
Loyalties and Diplomacy
Steadfast and independent, the Ankhurans nevertheless value peace and friendly relations with their human neighbors. Dwarven emissaries visit and even dwell among the humans of Anaros, Xha’en, and Gtsang, while human diplomats are allowed into some of the less-sensitive regions of the Ankhuran kingdom. The Castorhagi have been treated with a little more reserve, though diplomatic missions have been exchanged between Ankhura and Bream in recent years, which the humans hope will lead to full diplomatic relations.
The dwarves are also willing to send their veteran warriors to aid their neighbors should any outside force threaten the general peace, though it usually has to threaten Ankhura itself to trigger such a response. The most prominent such incident was when the dwarves aided the Gtsang in their war against the Red King Amnu-Paket.
Besides their tentative contacts with Castorhage, the Ankhurans do not maintain relations with any nation outside the Xha’en region. In fact, most outsiders are completely unaware of the kingdom’s existence, a fact which is fine with the Ankhurans.
Government
The dwarves’ government is hierarchal and family-structured, with a grand matron or patron (or sometimes both in the case of married monarchs) at its head, and lesser matrons and patrons below. In general, a given matron or patron has authority over all those of lesser rank, though it is considered polite and proper to couch all “commands” in the form of requests. These requests are almost always carried out however, though subordinates always have the opportunity to question them or request clarification. Rarely must a high-ranking matron or patron demand obedience, nor are they ever outright refused. Controversial orders are sometimes discussed (occasionally at length) and may be modified by consensus. Though this system seems odd to outsiders, the Ankhurans have been practicing it for millennia and it seems to work well for them.
Other officials bear far less grandiose titles than their human equivalents — overseer being the rough equivalent of “duke” and manager more or less equivalent to “baron.” Investitures such as “knight” and “lord” don’t exist in the Ankhurans’ largely egalitarian society, though great heroes who perish in battle are enshrined as (for the lack of a better term) “saints” and are believed to directly serve Masakhan in the afterlife.
Military
Though they are loath to admit it, the Ankhurans are in reality a military state, with much of their society devoted to defending the kingdom and holding off terrible threats from deep below.
While their armor and weapons are every bit as strong, durable, and often as magical as those of other dwarven nations, the Ankhurans favor steel imbued with bronze coloration and classically designed muscled or decorated breastplates and conical helms. Unlike dwarves elsewhere in Akados, the dwarves of Ankhura prefer swords over axes, usually with heavy, curved blades such as falchions, khopesh, or yataghans. Ankhuran shields are square and semi-cylindrical, allowing Ankhuran warriors to deploy with locked shields to block corridors and ward off missile fire. Ranged weapons include powerful shortbows and elaborate, intricately-designed crossbows with many different innovations such as self-loading mechanisms, accurate sights, and security latches that prevent their unauthorized use.
A small Ankhuran navy is based out of the port facilities below the Ithanic Fortress. These vessels patrol the waters of the Bream Straits (wary of incidents with the Castorhagi navy, which is also present there), the Kuseye Gulf, and the The Thousand Rocks. While at top speed, Ankuran ships can challenge the fastest-oared or sailing vessels afloat, they seldom venture farther afield. In past years, the Ankhuran warships helped fight pirates and smugglers, but recently they have acted more as a mobile search-and-rescue force to aid vessels in distress or to help out in cases of natural disaster.
The Ankhuran warrior class is a distinct group, usually living separately from others and intermarrying within its own ranks. Children are allowed to choose their own path, but almost invariably continue in their parents’ martial lifestyles. Warriors engage in ritual scarification, even males who normally leave their faces unadorned.
The highest rank in the Ankhuran military is Primary, equivalent to a general or field marshal, naturally followed by the Secondary (colonel or major) and Tertiary (captain). Below this are various grades of officers, each identified by command or responsibility. The Ankhuran equivalent to sergeant or non-commissioned officer is Master.
While the Ankhurans do not have the same berserker traditions as some dwarves and humans, they do consider death in service to the nation as the highest of honors. Barracks areas throughout Ankhura are decorated with shrines, statues, and images of past warriors who fell in battles unknown to anyone outside the subterranean realm. In some cases, these heroes gave their lives in conflicts that might have ended in regional, or even global catastrophe, against unspeakable horrors from the deep levels, and lie unknown to any but their fellow Ankhurans.
Major Threats
Almost nothing aboveground threatens the Ankhuran Kingdom, and the imposing edifice of the Ithanic Fortress is a tangible symbol of the dwarves’ strength and ability to defend themselves. The Ankhurans are also quite capable of responding to dangers on the surface, as they did when they sent warriors to aid in the Gtsang’s battles against Amnu-Paket. The truest and most alarming threats to Ankhura, and to the world beyond, lie in the deep spaces far below, and almost no one on the surface is aware of them.
The tunnels and warrens beneath the Tsendarkar Mountains and elsewhere in Xha’en are home to subterranean races — derro, goblins ratfolk, and others — that struggle ceaselessly against both each other and the Ankhurans. The dwarves are able to defend themselves handily against these foes, and most battles involve fending off raids or punitive attacks into enemy territory. There are tales of periodic derro invasions, goblin migrations, and explosions of ratfolk population that lead to large-scale conflicts, but these are rare.
Known only to very few, the Ankhurans’ most ancient and dangerous foes lurk in the labyrinthine tunnels that lie beneath the kingdom’s lowest levels. No one knows who dug these tunnels; perhaps they have always been there. The Ankhurans will not even acknowledge that they exist, but a handful of inquisitive visitors and illicit explorers from the surface world — those who survived with their bodies and sanity intact at any rate — have described them.
The tunnels are said to twist and turn in strange ways that induce sickness, mental instability, and even physical pain. They appear to exist in more than three dimensions, looping back on themselves or delivering confused travelers to entirely different locations, hopelessly lost and on the verge of madness. A few observers have spoken quietly of disturbing carvings and runes that run all along the tunnels — runes that alarmingly resemble the characters of the Ankhuran phonetic alphabet.
The tunnels are the least of the deep horrors, for a few hushed rumors have filtered down from the tight-lipped Ankhurans that suggest the tunnels are inhabited by entities every bit as alien and disturbing. These horrors seem to originate someplace deeper yet, where even the Ankhurans refuse to go, and periodically surge up from the depths to assail the dwarves’ kingdom in ferocious attempts to break out onto the surface.
When this happens, the Ankhurans go to war with absolute society-wide dedication. Every Ankhuran fights when the horrors come. Entrances to the surface are sealed, diplomats withdrawn, tradeposts closed, and visitors are unceremoniously escorted out. No one knows exactly how the Ankhurans face the horrors — that these wars take place at all is little more than whispered rumor. But the dwarves’ fatalistic determination suggests that that this is an ancient and extremely important conflict. Claims exist that the Ankhurans possess some very old magic, rituals, artifacts, and devices that are essential in their battles against the horrors of the deeps, and that one such ritual was used to defeat the Red King Amnu-Paket. Again, the Ankhurans say little to nothing about such matters, but those who know the dwarves well are assured that the horrors, and the measures to which the Ankhurans go to keep them contained, are all too real.
Wilderness and Adventure
The Ankhuran kingdom is located beneath the inhospitable and largely impassable Tsendarkar Mountains. Entrances to the kingdom are hidden throughout the region, though generally only the Ankhuran dwarves themselves can locate and operate them. The Ithanic Fortress is accessible from above, but the landward route is over a narrow and treacherous mountain trail that many have tragically failed to traverse. Access from the sea is much easier, as the fortress has extensive port facilities far below its peak.
Travelers in the mountains may find themselves lost, starving, injured, and attacked by hostile denizens such as goblins, frost giants, and yetis, in which case the Ankhuran dwarves may appear from hidden entrances to aid the unfortunates. Such contact probably leads adventurers into the kingdom itself, at least those portions where outsiders are allowed. Trusted outsiders may sometimes be recruited to help the dwarves fight off attacks by goblins or ratfolk, but the struggle against the deep horrors is usually reserved for the Ankhurans alone. Being allowed into the dwarves’ confidence sufficiently to know the truth about the horrors may be the basis of an especially involved series of adventures.
Delving into the mysteries of the dwarves’ origins and their connection to the depths below may also be possible, though doing so without the Ankhurans’ consent quickly earns their enmity. As a rule, Ankhurans do not murder, but those who learn too much may find themselves imprisoned or have their memories obscured through arcane means, possibly leading to even greater complications. Only the most trusted and reliable of outsiders can be taken into the dwarves’ confidence, and then only if absolute secrecy is sworn.
Tales among the Xha’en say that Ankhuran treasures and artifacts may lie hidden or forgotten in the mountains as well. It is known that the dwarves hold the secret of powerful magical rituals, and some old stories suggest that they crafted especially dangerous artifacts to battle unspecified enemies in the distant past. These secrets and artifacts, along with fabulous treasure, may be hidden in the craggy Tsendakar peaks. No one has thus far ever discovered such treasures, but this has not stopped greedy explorers from venturing to the region, often failing so catastrophically as to require rescue from the Ankhruans, the very folk that they intended to rob.
Region
Ankhura
Controlled Territories
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