Beggar's Teeth

Far into the north of the Empire, away from the wealthy network of cities that comprise Greater Ocem and a few weeks' horseback south of Kahnwold resides the Beggar's Teeth, so named after the gigantic dragon's bones that jut from the earth - an aftermath of the legendary defeat of the great old wyrm known as the Beggar in a long forgotten age.

Comprising of a valley surrounded almost entirely by the Balaliesh Mountain Range, the Beggar's Teeth is a peaceful microclimate, about as cold as Nowak but rendered pleasant by the lack of harsh winds, marauding monsters and endless cloud coverage.

Though there are a few towns and villages in the valley, they are of little note compared to the mighty Dwarven holds that are carved into the mountain.

The Beggar's Teeth are unique within the Empire in that they are still held by a dynasty under the Melkeld Clan, which has stretched back thousands of years: whilst many regions within the Empire were conquered and then incorporated into the economic and political system to be ran from Ocem, the Empire was much less successful in taking the Beggar's Teeth.

Two thousand years ago, the Emperor of the day made first contact with the Melkelds, then ran by the brutal Thane Khuzan. To an outsider, it would not appear that the valleys were anything special: they were quiet with some fertile land. But to a Dwarf, it was clear that this land was run by someone with a sharp axe and a willingness to use it. Typically, Dwarves care far more for the land beneath their mountains than above: they share their subterranean world with a whole multitude of different beasts, monsters and races, and frequently burrow into their parts of the mountain. Most Dwarves displace these unwanted residents, casting them out into the open air where they eke out a living by raiding local settlements and preying on passing travellers. But the Beggar's Teeth were different: the mountains were completely clear of any of these beastmen and monsters, which suggested that the Melkelds either never gave them a chance to escape or hunted them down to the last.

The Emperor of the day would not be aware of this, so sent his diplomats in unawares of the kind of Dwarf they would be dealing with. They arrived with the typical offer made to locals: join the Empire, give up your claim to the lands and flourish under the watchful eye of Ocem. One after another, three diplomats' heads were returned, savagely taken off at the neck by Khuzan's axe with no more effort than it would behead a Kobold. It was the fourth diplomat, a Dwarf from another part of the Empire who would prove different, for he arrived in the Melked's hold with a different mission-- to kill Khuzan. Under the beady eye of the Thane, the Dwarf made a different offer: that the Empire was fearful of conflict with such a mighty warlord, so would cede ownership of the regions around the Beggar's Teeth to the Thane, along with the profits of any town and mineral rights in the mountain. The Thane was interested, and offered a private audience to the diplomat. Legends can only attest as to what happened in that meeting, but both Dwarves were found dead, killed by the Thane's axe.

After a brief power struggle, much of the thane's family lay slain and his youngest son had claimed the throne, quickly signing a treaty with the Empire and later joining them in full as an autonomous region.

Since then, the Beggar's Teeth have largely prospered - growing rich from processing the Ocemi Empire's many raw goods into the highly desired weaponry of the dwarves - yet for some dwarves the humiliation of submission remains.