Hold of Khugdihr

**Khugdihr** was a dwarf hold in the West Dwarovar known as the *Wolf Gate*, the home of legendary Balgar the Builder, uplifters of Castanor and the organisers of Aul-Dwarov. Its namesake comes from the fact it faced the North Greatwoods which was known for its high wolf population before they were burned down. The Agate Dwarves are a mix of cultures from the previous Moss Agate Dwarves of Khugdihr and the remnants of Pink Agate Dwarves of Ovdal Asra which fell during the orcish invasion. In their fall however, King Murnir IX managed to block off the Dwarovrod to Khugdihr, safeguarding it for millennia to come, allowing the Agate Dwarves to prosper and have much influence over Castanor since the time it was a fledgling empire.

## Culture and Customs

Castanorian records state that the first major dwarven migration to the fledgling human empire was from the exiled dwarves of Khugdihr, ones aged more than a century who had kept their old faith in the Dwarven Pantheon when the rulers of Khugdihr had banned the practice. The dwarves ended up settling and working in the land of Cannor and with the arrival of the legendary Balgar the Builder, built most of Castonath and later, his many other wonders.

Maintaining the inventories of adventurers, soldiers, and builders was a large task for the Empire of Aul-Dwarov, as the need for precise numbers was paramount for success. The Agate Dwarves took pride in their role as the main bookkeepers and organisers of the Dwarovar, assuring equipment contracts were always complete, supplies always ended up in the right hands, and the contents of each adventuring backpack were verified. Many dwarves of other holds would see this as unnecessary, rather relying on their own records, but the Agate Dwarves knew that overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer.

Khugdihr had fallen many times to enemy forces: whether it be in civil war; to Nimrith the Red; or to the Orcs. The position of Khugdihr made it face the threats of the ever growing hostile surface with Giants and many other creatures seeking to destroy the hold. However, as many times as the hold has fallen, it has stubbornly risen back up, stronger than before against the countless threats on both sides of the gates.

## History

### The Fall of Aul-Dwarov

#### The Counterattack of the Western Holds

In 5895 BA, the combined forces of Khugdihr, Ovdal Asra and Haraz Orldhûm launched a counterattack against the orcs occupying Verkal Vazkron and along with the dwarves of Amldihr, Orlazam-az-dihr and the Grim Legion of Krakdhûmvror, slew every last orc that sieged the hold. However, this victory was short as an even larger host of orcs arrived in Verkal Vazkron which caused the western holds to suffer considerable losses, with the remainder of the troops escaping through the Southern Entrance.

#### The Sacrifice of Ovdal Asra

In 5850 BA, King Murnir IX of Ovdal Asra sent his heir and as many dwarves as possible to flee the Serpentspine through nearby caves, leaving only the most defiant dwarves along with their Golems to fight against the horde of orcs. After many heated battles, King Murnir IX ordered a mad but self proclaimed valorous decision to collapse the surrounding caverns and Dwarovrod 3, burying every dwarf and orc in the rubble while saving Khugdihr from the orcish tides for many years. For this noble sacrifice, King Murnir IX was forever remembered as "The Vengeful".

Many of the evacuated dwarves managed to flee into Cannor, with most making their way to Khugdihr. The Pink Agate Dwarves of Ovdal Asra and the Moss Agate Dwarves of Khugdihr intermingled with each other when coexisting in the secure Hold which eventually caused both cultures to meld into the modern Agate Dwarf.

### A New Age

#### Abandonment of the Dwarven Pantheon

In 1326 BA, isolated from the rest of the Dwarovar, the Agate Dwarves found it increasingly difficult to worship gods that did not help them in their time of need. Many of the dwarves abandoned the Dwarven Pantheon with a few clans converting over to Ancestor Worship the following years as well. All except for the Oathstone Clan who remained firm in their beliefs.

#### Exile of the Oathstones

The Agate Dwarves had enough of the Oathstones and their refusal to abandon the Pantheon, with the young King Storum Carûm in particular, being very irritated that dwarves more stubborn than himself existed. He confronted the Oathstone patriarch for one final attempt to convert the stubborn dwarves, yet Patriarch Karrom Oathstone only replied with “In the darkest of moments, the gods’ light shines the brightest”.

Thus in 643 BA, a decree was made, outlining that any dwarf aged more than a century that worshipped the old Pantheon had to leave the hold and worship their faith on the surface.

#### Balgar’s Exile

When the Oathstone Decree was made, Balgar was a mere 58 years old. He was exempt from it for now, but he had no intentions of abandoning his faith. He would slowly incorporate the Pantheon into his works, notably creating works involving Anvelind Hearthmaiden and Margurz the Brewmaster. At first the dwarves dismissed this to be a young dwarf’s foolishness, but once Balgar reached the age of 63, his not so subtle creations got problematic. Great monuments to the Pantheon were made that outshone most of the hold’s creations leading him to soon be exiled to the surface in 638 BA despite not reaching his century day.

Despite his exile, Balgar would always be remembered for his mastery of stone. Eventually becoming a worshipped ancestor in the hold that exiled him, and two years later in 636 BA, Balgar would meet Castan the Progenitor and enter into his service.

### Cooperation with Castanor

#### The Treaty of Castan Dwarf-Friend

Under the reign of Castan Dwarf-Friend, the alliance of Castanor, Khugdihr, Ovdal Tûngr, Shazstundihr, and Rubyhold attempted the resettlement of the long abandoned hold of Ânumdihr in 549 BA, with the new inhabitants being mainly Stone Dwarves and numerous other dwarves seeking a new life.

#### The Giant War

One year after the Giants War began, the hold of Khugdihr joined forces with Castanor in 406 BA to drive back the giants in the north. They launched a surprise attack out of their northern caves, allowing them to deal devastating damage to the giants before they are forced to retreat back to the hold. After that initial assault, the Agate Dwarves would resort to guerrilla tactics for the duration of the war.

A hero had however emerged in 397 BA, a dwarf named Murri joined an expedition into the lands of the giants several years after the start of the war. When his expedition was defeated, however, Murri was one of very few survivors. Rather than going home and accepting defeat, Murri led this small band on an extended guerrilla campaign in the Northern Pass, becoming feared among the armies of the giants. As one of his ambushes failed, he alone held a mountain pass against the giants to allow his companions to escape, and tell the tales of his deeds back in Khugdihr. Many years later, his corpse was found, surrounded by the remains of a dozen giants which earned him the title “Giantbreaker”.

### The Dragonwake

#### Nimrith the Red’s Attack

Cannor was rocked by chaos like never before, with the Dragonwake causing dragons taking flight and destroying much in their path. Unfortunately for the Dwarovar, it was no different. In the section of the Dwarovrod once collapsed by King Murnir the Vengeful, something had awoken in 470. This was the great dragon Nimrith the Red, who burst forth from the rubble beneath, forming a great hole rent from the earth, and opening the path to Khugdihr once more to the greater Dwarovar.

The gates leading to the Dwarovrod had long since been left to fall into a state of disrepair, not that they would have stood anyways against the full might of the enraged dragon. Barely was there time to ring the alarm before the gate’s garrison was consumed in dragon flame and devoured in turn.

Many were caught in Nimrith’s flames but due to Nimrith's rage, his path was rather straightforward- the gate leading to the surface, and Castanor. Those who did not flee from the dragon’s path were food for the dragon. Nimrith would then burn his way through the hold, taking flight from Khugdihr to terrorise the rest of Cannor. After his departure, a number of refugees would flee the devastated hold, as the pathway to the Dwarovar now lay open. Those few who remained behind attempted to repair the hold to the best of their ability.

#### Arrival of the Darkscales

One by one, the remaining dwarves of Khugdihr would claim to see dragons in the dark. Bipedal and small, their forms stalked the scorched halls that had been abandoned and partially melted by dragon flame. The remaining Agate Dwarves, unbeknownst to them, had encountered kobolds, drawn to the site where Nimrith had awakened, and ready to prepare the hold for his perceived return. The kobolds themselves had emerged from the tunnel in which Nimrith had awakened. It is at this point, through the broken gate to the Dwarovar that a small horde of kobolds emerged. This is what finally drove out the last of the stubborn dwarven holdouts from Khugdihr in 476, with even those insane few who tried to remain behind being slaughtered. The emergent kobolds then began to prepare a vast room filled with treasure to summon their “god.”

Two years after their arrival in 478, the kobolds believed their efforts had been rewarded with the return of Nimrith. In truth, Nimrith had simply ceased his rampage across Cannor and was planning to return to the caves of the Serpentspine to slumber. Despite this, for whatever enigmatic reason Nimrith decided to remain in Khugdihr. Shortly after his return was the arrival of the Nimrithan.

The Nimrithan were a cult born in the ashes of Damescrown, the last major site of his activity during the Dragonwake. Survivors who saw the dragon as a true being of reverence, unlike the distant gods of the Castanorian Pantheon. Expelled from Damescrown for their views, they trekked in the path of the Dragon, and arrived at Khugdihr. Where they met with the kobolds, and offered all their worldly possessions to the great dragon as a sign of submission and reverence. In doing so, they were welcomed within the halls of the Red Dragon, and the Cult of the Nimrithan was born in earnest, kobold and human together.

#### Death of Nimrith the Red

The Nimrithan had by 1103 settled into much of Khugdihr, turning the entirety of the hold into a mixture of monastery, fortress, and treasure vault for the great dragon. Unfortunately, such wealth and opulence had attracted many over the years who sought it for themselves. With much of Cannor having recovered after the War of the Sorcerer-King, and the era of Chivalric Escann in full bloom, many saw Nimrith and his followers as the last major threat to the relative peace that had been established in Escann following the War of the Sorcerer-King.

So, a bold party of adventurers dared the inconceivable. They ventured forth to slay Nimrith the Red, and infiltrated the hold to do so. The following battle rocked the entire hold, as several days of fighting took place, devastating entire sections with dragon flame and magic. But in the end, after 625 years of residence in Khugdihr, Nimrith the Red was slain, and Khugdihr was liberated.

In the aftermath, many kobolds and human followers of Nimrith fled, most humans fled to the surface, and many kobolds into the depths of the Serpentspine. Whilst in time the Cult of Nimrith would vanish on the surface, the kobolds within the caverns of the Serpentspine would remember, after a fashion, with their beliefs and worship degenerating into what would be expected from an unsupervised kobold.

### Refounding of Khugdihr

#### Repairment of the Hold

A few months after the death of Nimrith and the adventurers cleaning the hold of his hoard, many Agate Dwarves saw this as ample time to return in 1104, before other horrors from the Serpentspine could find their way to the hold and take residence now that Nimrith was slain. It was an extreme effort, but many Agate, and even some Stone Dwarves saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity that could not be ignored.

Moving quickly, entire clans moved into Khugdihr and began restoration efforts, first with the main gates into and out of the hold, and then in repairing the damage to the hold itself, which included much dragon related iconography. It would take decades to truly repair the damages, and the remaining kobolds in the hold to be flushed out and killed, but after five decades of effort it was said that Khugdihr had been restored to its ancient and venerable self, just now with a few dragon-sized halls scattered throughout the hold.

#### Return of the Darkscales

In 1317, there was a rumbling in the deep. Down the Dwarovrod came a horde of kobolds led by a charismatic mage, numbering in the tens of thousands with only one goal: the reclamation, or utter destruction of Khugdihr. The kobolds did not simply vanish into the Serpentspine after the death of their god and master Nimrith, they instead turned their efforts to vengeance. Though it took two centuries, they consolidated and armed themselves to reclaim Khugdihr for themselves.

The siege lasted nine years, with the kobolds even going as far to breach the main gate, but even after all that time, they could not best proper dwarven steel and massed crossbow fire. The kobolds finally retreated with the death of their leader, and afterwards collapsed into a series of small tribes that scattered throughout the Serpentspine, unable to regain cohesion under the strain of goblin and orcish opportunism.

### The Greentide

#### First Asra Expedition

A group of adventurers led by the last son of Clan Asra, Fognir Asra ventured into Asra Depths in order to recover the Gem of Asra, one of the gems of the Dwarovkron. The expedition was successful in finding the hold but in turn found an early Greentide host led by Dugorik Dragonbreaker, who was amassing his troops in order to launch a surprise attack on Khugdihr through tunnels they had excavated from the burial 6000 years in the past. The expedition successfully stopped and slew Dugorik and recovered the gem with the aid of an golem army the party had awakened.

#### The Fall of Khugdihr

Within the Dwarovar, things were changing. Orcish warbands were seen in the vicinity of Khugdihr as early as 1412, and with the news provided by the First Asra Expedition, Khugdihr was aware that something was coming. They could not, truly, be prepared for what occurred next.

In 1415, Korgus Dookanson led a horde of orcs to the gates of Khugdihr, establishing a siege camp; the orcs worked tirelessly, creating siege engines and counter-fortifications. The dwarves of Khugdihr were not dealing with some regular warlord, this Korgus was something completely different. There was no dissent, no jockeying for position or prestige, these orcs were not a warband, but an organised army. By 1420, the main gate had been damaged, and the Black Orcs would be contesting the entry to the hold regularly. At this point a Black Orc chieftain named Gurukk, one of the most devoted lieutenants of Korgus, would assume command of the besiegers. Korgus then returned to the depths of the Serpentspine to rally more warbands for his army.

Under the command of Gurukk, the siege turned from restrained orcish savagery to cold and brutal, but no less cunning warfare. Sappers, siege engines, and more were all employed to break the dwarves of Khugdihr. By 1423, Gurukk had seized control of more than 1/3rd of the entire hold, and had received a fresh batch of reinforcement by a force 10,000 strong trained by Korgus Dookanson himself, freshly trained and tested in the Dwarovar. By 1424, Gurukk had broken the back of the dwarven resistance, with the Agate Dwarves electing to abandon Khugdihr. A few were taken as captives. For his efforts, Gurukk was granted the name “Siegebreaker” by Korgus himself, and instructed to ensure the surface would receive a message. Dead dwarves and especially visitors to Khugdihr were piled into carts, pulled by the few surviving dwarven captives which were then spread throughout Escann, given a warning in broken dwarven by Gurukk.

> “This is simply a prelude for what is to come. For you, your realms, and your gods.”
>
>

The Fall of Khugdihr caused the devastating Greentide to ravage Escann, with the orcs destroying it much like they did the Dwarovar. However, this led to a smaller number of orcs in the Serpentspine, with many dwarven expeditions setting out to reclaim their homeland soon after the death of Dookanson.