Drazia Dynasty

This nation is almost completely subterranean, made up of numerous Dwarven city states, known as Kingdoms, which rarely interact unless there are other people trying to settle in territory the dwarfs consider part of the Drazia Dynasty. Officially, the kingdoms are ruled by the king of the Kingdom of Gold but this power is very limited; if another kingdom doesn't approve of the ruling it will either be ignored or met with economic sanctions and possibly even military action.

There is a lot of trade between the Kingdoms, usually by means of well-guarded, covered caravans that travel along a network of very straight, above ground roads which link each kingdom. The only exceptions to this are the Kingdom of Copper and the Kingdom of Stone which have an underground link between their cities, something that the other Kingdoms quietly admire.

Of the Dynasty's free people, most are Dwarves, but the second most common species is Gnomes, then a smattering of humans (who are pretty much only accepted if they act quite Dwarven). The remainder of the Dynasty's population is made up of slaves of many different races who are used in various ways throughout the country as the laws concerning the treatment of slaves vary by Kingdom. The prevalence of the slave population also varies by Kingdom, with the greatest number living in the Kingdom of Iron, primarily on the southern coast where Carthorkan ships often dock and sell the many slaves carried onboard.

**Law**

Law and order are taken very seriously within the Dynasty and positions within the justice system are both highly sought after and highly respected. The members of the town guard are called Peacekeepers and walk the streets in full armour at all times. To become a Peacekeeper, citizens must undergo between 6 to 10 years of training, most of which is designed to ensure that they will be incorruptible and diligent. It is said that the Peacekeepers won’t care if you 'stole a cake or a castle' - if they catch you, they’ll take you in, no matter how much you beg and plead. The guardhouses are known as Houses of Peace and the courts are called Temples of Peace.

A large percentage of the time and resources of the Peacekeepers are directed towards tracking down and stopping any slaves talking of or planning an escape or revolt. When they are caught, they’re severely punished, along with any friends or family, as well as anyone who assisted them in any way. Many slaves have had fingers or arms removed for not having reported suspected dissident slaves. This results in even fewer escapes or uprisings than they experience in Carthorka, who rely on a policy of fear of painful death to contain their slaves. The other major crime within the Dynasty is anything that could cause damage to the cavern structures that the Kingdom cities are built within; this means that any work with or storage of gunpowder is highly regulated with a lot of redundancies designed within the system. Failing to follow the proper procedures can carry a hefty penalty even if nothing actually goes wrong.

### History

There used to be a Gnomish nation, known as Muin-Ru which ran from the Ra-Vek sea up to the Thebilum Empire. The gnomes lived on the surface while below the surface lived a number of Dwarven cities. Muin-Ru grew rich off of trading materials from one Kingdom to another and using the Dwarven cities to manufacture parts for there advanced technology which could then be assembled above ground so that non of the Dwarven kingdoms had the full knowledge of how to make all of the parts or how to put them together. This kept the Gnomes superior and even allowed them to sell there tech back to the Dwarves assuming they would never be able to reverse engineer any of it for a large profit to continue exploiting the work of the dwarves below. In 4868 King Morgrym was crowned as ruler of the Kingdom of Gold as a young dwarf he was hot headed and didn't appreciate the way the Dwarves were being treated, he was able to rally the young and the poor of his kingdom to his opinion that something had to be done, but those with power and wealth within the city were more difficult to convince. At first Morgrym just wanted to force Muin-Ru's hand to make them trade in more favorable ways towards his kingdom at least and maybe to secure land above ground to form trade routes uncontrolled by Muin-Ru, but even with the combined might of his entire city it wouldn't be enough to force their hand. He needed convince the other kingdoms to join with him which took some time, many of the other Kingdoms were also annoyed at the arrangement but again those with a modicum of power were worried to lose it all if they tried to change anything, so he had to appeal to the masses. To do this Morgrym started a campaign, he traveled from kingdom to kingdom, and left devote follows at each of them, the message he spread and they continued was, "we Dwarves have suffered long enough below the heel of the Gnomes they must pay for their crimes over the last 4 millennia" with the masses behind him the nobles of the kingdoms had to get in line or face riots within their cities. The fact that the Gnomes rarely took any interest in nor ventured into the kingdoms allowed this uprising to grow they assumed that since the kingdoms had little to no communication other than the royals making trips to entertain one another. But the final nail in the coffin of Muin-Ru's oblivious surprise was that they believe that their superior technology made them invincible to anyone who might try to attack. It started with each city slowing its production of parts and raw materials, along with a ramp up in the production of armaments below ground and mysterious accidents happening to shipments traveling between kingdoms. This all culminated with a very short war known as the war of Independence and unification in the winter of 4874 and after just 3 short years Muin-Ru had been utterly wiped from the surface its capital Stormlight reduced to a ruined crater, its people mostly taken prisoner or having fled to either Duthgar, Janmier or Carthorka and some escaped on the now floating city of Jal'hep.

The Dynasty keeps mostly to itself bar to trade there have been disputes over tax on trades and trade embargoes over the years but the only times that the Dynasties military gets involved is when some one tries to claim territory in their land.

**Demographics**

The dominant population within the dynasty is dwarven with a few gnomes living as second class citizens dotted around the kingdoms, other than this there is around 20% of the population are slaves, which are a number of different races gnomes are most common, while haflings and duragar are favoured for their size, drow, humans, tieflings, Assimar, orcs and elves are all present.

### The Kingdoms

The Kingdom of Gold, which is officially the head of the Dynasty

The Kingdom of Silver

The Kingdom of Copper

The Kingdom of Iron, a kingdom with a large sea port

The Kingdom of Stone

The Kingdom of Mithril

The Kingdom of Steel, the youngest Kingdom, having only been established in 5874 SU.