Hold of Grôzumdihr

**Grôzumdihr** was a dwarf hold in the Tree of Stone known as the *Eastern Green Gate*, the home of tolerant philosophers, administrators and diplomats. The Peridot Dwarves were known for their peacemaking among the holds of the Serpentspine and their promotion of cooperation with each other rather than holding grudges. Nicknamed as the “Welcoming Gate”, Grôzumdihr was known for its cooperation with the humans of ancient Rakhadesh, so much so that the humans also accepted the Peridot Dwarves into their lands as they fled their hold due to the Goblintide which plagued the Tree of Stone.

## Culture and Customs

Grôzumdihr was known for the thousands of peridot stones that stud the main doors of the hold. They twinkle the colour of new spring growth when the sun rises over the Marutha, marking out the hold’s entrance from the grey granite of the mountains. Above the gate were carved the words 'All dwarf-friends are welcome' in both dwarven and ancient Rakhadeshi, for Grôzumdihr has long been friends to humans. The first civilizations of men in Rahen owe much of their knowledge of writing, agriculture, and law to the dwarves of Grôzumdihr, particularly Sivondi the Good, who aided the humans in building their first true cities on the surface. The halls within the Welcoming Gate resounded for many long ages with the sounds of cooperation between dwarves and men, and still the gate beckons, welcoming all with peaceful intention.

While dwarfkind is famed for holding grudges and demanding reparations, the Peridot Dwarves were notable peacemakers among their kin. Even in the time of the Jade Empire, when the arrogant lords of Grônstunad were locked in combat with the Segbandal, the Peridot attempted to promote cooperation within and between dwarven states such as creating the Drizdahvad after the fall of the Jade Empire, forging pacts with even the gruff Granites and imperious Jade. These treaties, and the many accords of friendship with the Raheni on the surface, were compiled into the Tome of Alliances, a great book of graces and promises to be fulfilled and called upon in times of need. The Peridot Dwarves were notorious for keeping their oaths and expecting others to hold their ends of the bargain, even when the terms of such treaties were ancient and forgotten by the other party. While this did, at times, cause diplomatic incidents, it earned them a reputation for their unwavering devotion to their word.

Grôzumdihr is the closest hold to Earthseed, the holiest site in dwarven mythology, the place where the earth goddess Halanna carved the first dwarves from the rock of the Serpentspine. Halanna’s teachings were ever prominent in Grôzumdihr, and as all creatures are children of mother earth, tolerance was a strongly embraced virtue. Some Peridot philosophers even went so far as seeing goblinoids as worthy of respect and decency, a claim dismissed across Aul-Dwarov by any who considered themselves civilised thinkers.

## History

### Jade Empire Excursions

#### Proclamation of the Jade Empire

Soon after the fall of Amldihr in 5895 BA, Grônstunad declared itself overlord of Aul-Dwarov and declared the West lost, establishing the Jade Empire in 5887 BA. Outraged at being passed over, many of the holds of the Middle Dwarovar refused to acknowledge the proclamation, and severed ties with Grônstunad. The holds of the Tree of Stone however, tired of the constant warfare, accepted the proclamation and joined the Jade Empire.

#### The First Call for Reclamation

In 5702 BA, High King Moilin I of the Jade Empire, on the first day of his rule, issued the “call for reclamation”. He stated that the western holds must be reclaimed by any means necessary, and called for the creation of a reclamation army. It was led by Morri Splitbeard, a noble from Ovdal Kanzad and was to be sent west, marching straight through the Segbandal, to reclaim Hul-Jorkad and Verkal Kozenad. If they were to be denied access by the dwarves of the Segbandal, Moilin stated, those dwarves would be enemies of the Jade Empire.

#### The Second Call for Reclamation

In 5440 BA, Dvepnir II called for a renewal of the Call for Reclamation, putting together an army of all of the holds of the Jade Empire. He had decided to lead the forces himself, and to travel over what is in modern times known as the Forbidden Plains rather than through the Segbandal, aiming to reach and reclaim Dûr-Vazhatun. Departing from Grôzumdihr, the Reclamation army travelled through the Hreenwegpas, and was never heard from again. It is clear that they had failed, but their exact fate is uncertain.

#### The Third Call for Reclamation

In 5002 BA, Moilin III declared the third Call for Reclamation, and stated that the holds of the Segbandal would kneel before his army as he moved westward or be destroyed. He began to besiege Gor Ozumbrog in 5000 BA, but its defences much improved since the first siege by Morri Splitbeard. Gor Ozumbrog was able to withstand the assaults with relative ease causing a protracted siege to begin.

An Amber Dwarf general by the name of Thrindul Frozenflame and his retinue defected to the Segbandal, claiming that they should not be fighting their own kin and in 4874 BA, they had attacked the besieging reclamation army in the back, killing High King Moilin III. The rest of the reclamation army scattered, and the siege of Gor Ozumbrog was lifted, with Thrindul and his forces settling down in Gor Ozumbrog.

### Issues on the Surface

#### The Second Ogre Incursion

With the ogres having become more established in central Rahen in around 3900 BA, they had begun a second incursion into northern Rahen, much bigger and better prepared than the first one. The Amethyst Dwarves were mostly avoided, and repelled in what few open battles took place. Grôzumdihr, meanwhile, simply kept its gates closed, and fired at any ogre that came into reach of its trebuchets. The ogres maintained control over the region, subjugating the few humans that lived there, and established a number of magically protected strongholds.

#### Rooting out the Ogres

Following a petition by Hul-az-Krakazol and Grôzumdihr for an imperial action to deal with the ogres outside of their holds, arguing that if left alone the ogres could grow to become a threat to the empire, High King Borrun II sanctioned an expedition to root them out in 3497 BA. Using rune magic, the expeditionaries managed to break the glamours obscuring many of the strongholds, and immediately began besieging several of them.

After many decades of slowly losing strongholds to the dwarves, the ogre magi finally succeeded in improving their glamouring spells, protecting the surviving strongholds from the dwarven expeditions. At this point in 3353 BA, however, their control over the region had been mostly lost, and the ogres only kept contact with their direct tributaries in order to avoid detection. There were still occasional skirmishes with the dwarves, and those strongholds that are still found by chance were quickly besieged and destroyed.

#### Human Migration

With the power of the ogres severely limited, and the dwarves uninterested in taking direct control over the region, by 3180 BA, human tribes began to migrate into Northern Rahen in large numbers, establishing independent towns and villages all over the region. The ogres still occasionally attempted to subjugate them or bully them into becoming tributaries, but this constantly attracted the attention of dwarven expeditionary forces, who promptly found and destroyed the ogre stronghold attempting this. This began a period of friendly contact and relations between the dwarves and humans, as the dwarves recognised that the humans establishing themselves could permanently break the strength of the remaining ogres.

Following several centuries of casual cooperation between humans and dwarves in combating the ogres, many of the human tribes started seeking the explicit protection of the Jade Empire. Former ogre tributaries and independent later arrivals alike petitioned the dwarves to establish themselves as their nominal overlord, in return for protection against the ogres and the ability to trade with the holds. Jade High King Muiri I accepted all of these petitions, and within a few decades virtually all of the human tribes in Northern Rahen were under the direct influence of the Jade Empire by 2700 BA. Grôzumdihr especially developed close ties with the Ghankheden people living in the hills near its gates, sharing technology, philosophy, and administrative methods with them.

### Fall of the Jade Empire

#### The Goblintide

Under the command of Grimka the Despoiler, a powerful goblin wizard, the goblins of the Tree of Stone united in 2497 BA, and began large-scale assaults on all transport between the holds. While none of the holds were attacked head-on, they were all de facto under siege, as they could barely reach any of the other holds. As it became apparent that the Tree of Stone holds were unable to regain control over the Dwarovrod by themselves, a massive army led by general Dourban Brightbrow was rallied in Grônstunad to regain control over the Tree of Stone in 2474 BA.

As the jade army entered the Tree of Stone, Grimka sent emissaries to the hobgoblin clans in the Jade Mines and on the surface, proposing a united front against the dwarves in 2472 BA. In return, they promised the Hobgoblins would receive Grônstunad, the grandest hold of the east, as their prize.

#### Relief of Hul-az-Krakazol

The jade army successfully destroyed several goblin encampments in the vicinity of Hul-az-Krakazol in 2471 BA, enabling the hold to be supplied through the Dwarovrod from the Jade Mines again. King Grongnir I of Hul-az-Krakazol offered troops and supplies to the army as they prepared to move further into the Tree of Stone. In turn, Grimka ordered a full siege of Ovdal-az-Ân in order to delay the dwarves as much as possible, and sent word to the hobgoblin and goblin tribes of the jade mines.

#### Chaos in the Jade Mines

As the jade army reached Ovdal-az-Ân and started to dismantle the fortifications of the besieging goblins, the hobgoblin armies from Rahen launched an assault on Grônstunad from the south in 2470 BA. The alarm was raised, and messages were sent to the other holds in the Jade mines and to the expeditionary force in the Tree of Stone.

With the attack from the south commencing, the goblins and hobgoblins of the Jade Mines also initiated their attacks, and shut off the access routes from the east and west towards Grônstunad in 2469 BA. The Jade Mines were in virtually the same situation as the Tree of Stone now, with all access between holds nearly impossible.

#### Relief of Ovdal-az-Ân

The jade army broke the siege of Ovdal-az-Ân, routing the goblin forces in 2468 BA, with the jade army requesting supplies and access past the hold in order to relieve Grôzumdihr as well, but king Snorri V refused. He was insulted by the Jade armies, as he had not requested them, and their presence implied they were unable to deal with a simple infestation of goblins around their hold. After nearly two months of attempting diplomacy with Snorri, the jade army returned to Hul-az-Krakazol. Unsure what to do next, they sent word back to Grônstunad asking for instructions.

#### Failed Relief of the Jade Mines

A messenger returned from Tuwad-Dhûmankon over the surface, informing the jade army of the dire situation in the Jade Mines. Dourban Brightbrow ordered his forces to prepare for a surface journey towards Grônstunad, however, when king Grongnir of Hul-az Krakazol heard this, he laughed in his face and called it the cowardly route. Wounded in his pride, Dourban ordered his troops to instead move through the Dwarovrod in 2466 BA. As they attempted to move through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines, they were ambushed by a large force of goblins and hobgoblins, in what eventually turned into a long siege as the jade army dug itself into a defensive position in the tunnel.

The jade army made one final attempt to push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2463 BA, but were slain to the last. Hearing of this, Grimka believed this to be the moment to strike, and ordered all the clans to go on the offensive again, launching direct attacks on the holds of the Tree of Stone yet again.

#### The Goblintide Shattered

While leading a direct assault on Grôzumdihr, Grimka the Despoiler was killed as he attempted to break a powerful runic warding spell defending an outer gate in 2460 BA. The energy released as the spell was broken disintegrated Grimka as well as any goblin within his vicinity. Almost immediately, the clans taking part in the siege started to fight amongst themselves over leadership of the goblintide. As news spread, the goblintide disintegrated as the many clans fell back into their old rivalries. The hobgoblins, however, remained united in their attacks against the Jade Empire.

#### Granite Independence and Betrayal

With the Tunad towards the Jade Mines thoroughly under the control of the hobgoblins, the holds of the Tree of Stone focused mostly on reclaiming control over the Dwarovrod apart from the area around Ovdal Kanzad. King Snorri V of Ovdal-az-Ân decreed that the Jade Empire no longer held sway over the Tree of Stone, and declared itself independent in 2449 BA.

Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol however started organising a large expedition over the surface to relieve Grônstunad in 2445 BA. They intended to attack the surface settlements of the Hobgoblins, in order to cut off supplies from the besieging forces. As they were sent out, however, Snorri accused them of plotting to put them back under the heel of the Jade Empire. As the Amethyst-Peridot expedition was fighting the hobgoblins in northeastern Rahen, Snorri arrived at the gates of Hul-az-Krakazol with an army, and began a siege. Enraged, the Amethyst-Peridot expedition returned to Hul-az-Krakazol, and attacked the besieging forces. In a bloody battle, the Granite Dwarves were defeated, and Snorri V was killed in 2443 BA.

#### The Fall of Grônstunad

Having recovered from the battle of Hul-az-Krakazol, a second Amethyst-Peridot expedition was organised in 2438 BA and sent overland to attack the hobgoblins. As the hobgoblins were prepared this time, they were less successful, and while they made progress, it was slow. With Grônstunad besieged by the Hobgoblins, the defenders launched an attack to their south which was successful, finally meeting up with the army of the Amethyst-Peridot expedition and the Nephrite Expedition led by queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol.

At the same time, however, the western and eastern gates were breached, and the hobgoblins and goblins entered Grônstunad from both sides. The defenders and the expeditionary forces quickly entered the hold to try and repel them, resulting in a chaotic battle that stretched over every level and section of the hold. The battle took several months, as the dwarves desperately attempted to hold on to their capital. High King Moilin IV of the Jade Empire and most of his direct family were killed in this battle, as was queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol. In the end, Grônstunad was lost, and the Dwarven survivors escaped to either Vûrdriz-Ândriz or the surface. The survivors that escaped to the surface mostly settled in the holds where the expeditions came from.

#### The Last Expedition

The Dwarves knew that a lot of survivors were still stuck in Vûrdriz-Ândriz and that, with Grônstunad fallen, it was only a matter of time before its defences failed. Under the command of king Nori II of Grôzumdihr, a coalition was again formed between Verkal Ozovar, Hul-az-Krakazol, and Grôzumdihr in 2396 BA. He also reached out to Ovdal Kanzad and Ovdal-az-Ân, arguing that the Jade Empire is gone with the death of the High King and the fall of Grônstunad, and that this was only about saving Dwarvenkind from further doom. Ovdal Kanzad agreed, and sent a small expeditionary force with cannons to aid in Grônstunad’s reclamation. Ovdal-az-Ân, however, had sealed their gates shut, and the envoys were only met with crossbow bolts.

The army of the four holds quickly dispatched the much weakened hobgoblins on the surface, and soon laid siege to Grônstunad in 2394 BA. With aid of the cannons from Ovdal Kanzad, the siege was quite successful despite not cutting off the access routes from inside the mountains, and the hobgoblins regularly having to repel attacks and throw up temporary defences as their walls were broken by cannonfire.

With the Dwarven attackers mostly situated in the tunnel access towards Grônstunad, the hobgoblins sent reinforcements to their kin on the surface, managing to put together an army to lock the dwarven army inside the tunnel. By 2390 BA, with their supplies cut off, the dwarves abandoned the siege. They broke through the army on the surface, and returned home with their goal unfulfilled. With no support or supplies from the outside, Vûrdriz-Ândriz fell to the goblin and hobgoblin attackers. By all records, there were no survivors in 2368 BA.

#### Reconnection with Tuwad-Dhûmankon

With the hobgoblins and goblins disunited with infighting in the Jade Mines, the dwarves of Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol organised an expedition to try and push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2143 BA, to find out whether Tuwad-Dhûmankon had survived the fall of the Jade Empire. They reclaimed the Dwarovrod with relative ease, and were elated to find Tuwad-Dhûmankon surviving and thriving. The expected assault from the hobgoblins had never come, and the great food gardens had easily sustained their population.

### The Drizdahvad

#### The Proclamation

Grôzumdihr, Hul-az-Krakazol and Tuwad-Dhûmankon agreed to the three shields proclamation, or Drizdahvad in 2135 BA, promising that they will all cooperate in coming to the others’ defence in case of an attack and keeping the supply routes between their holds over the Dwarovrod safe from raiders. In order to safeguard the supply line between Tuwad-Dhûmankon and Hul-az-Krakazol, both ends of the tunad were fortified in 2100 BA, to ensure that no goblins or hobgoblins could move between the Jade Mines and the Tree of stone. The Drizdahvad ensured a long lasting survival of the holds for over a millennia, allowing them to make use of the now fairly reliable surface trade networks that the humans of Rahen and Bulwar had established, with Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol re-establishing contact with the holds of the west by 1102 BA.

#### The Siege of Tuwad-Dhûmankon

In the 920s BA, the warring hobgoblin clans united behind the great Mage-Queen Shakuin the Iron Spider and began to war with the dwarves of Tuwad-Dhûmankon. The hobgoblins fought craftily and slowly encircled the hold, cutting off communications with the rest of the Drizdahvad and getting into position to launch targeted attacks that crippled the ability of the dwarves to venture out.

By the time that the Amethyst Dwarves realised something was wrong and rallied an army to relieve Tuwad-Dhûmankon, the hold was already dangerously close to falling to the magically-aided tunnelling efforts and tenacity of the hobgoblins. Expecting their foes to flee before them like goblins often did, the dwarven relief army was slowed by the stubborn defence of the hobgoblins, and though the Emerald Dwarves thrice attempted to break out and connect with their allies, they were repulsed each time. Only a few escaped the fall of the hold by 908 BA, which the amethyst and peridot could see go dark in the distance but do nothing to save.

#### The Siege of Grôzumdihr

After many centuries of disunity, the goblins of the Tree of Stone were once again united in 550 BA, this time under clanboss Praaq Bloodscrawl. The Dwarovrod between Hul-az-Krakazol and Grôzumdihr was again cut off, forcing the holds to move their supply routes to the surface. Clan Bloodscrawl laid siege to Grôzumdihr in 531 BA. The hold was well defended and fortified, and had access to an open supply line due to their good relations with the Ghankheden humans beyond their surface gate. Still, the siege took a toll on the defenders, as the goblins kept making use of tunnelling to attempt to gain access to the unguarded sections of the hold.

#### The Last Battle of the Drizdahvad

With Grôzumdihr invoking the Drizdahvad and asking for help from Hul-az-Krakazol, king Otik II organised a large relief force in 501 BA. However, he viewed the Grôzumdihr request to send troops via the surface as an insult to his competence, and led his dwarves over the Dwarovrod instead. This ended in disaster, as this route had not been kept safe since the start of the second goblintide, and when the dwarves finally got near Grôzumdihr they had already suffered many losses and lost much of their supplies. Otik II personally led an attack on the besieging goblins, but the exhausted dwarves were quickly cornered. Seeing the battle, the Grôzumdihr garrison sortied from the main gate in an attempt to save the Amethyst dwarves, but they were too late. Only five dwarves of the relief force were rescued and brought inside the hold. The rest, including king Otik II, were killed.

#### The Fall of Grôzumdihr

With the goblin siege still ongoing, and the situation becoming ever more dire, king Thrim V of Grôzumdihr made the decision to abandon the hold in 438 BA. He used a portion of the gold in the vault to purchase bits of land from the Ghankheden outside the gate, and began an orderly evacuation. Leaving the hold, the dwarves reached out to the Rahenrajas, who still ruled the region at the time, and asked for safe settlement within the lands of the Ghankheden. The Rajas agreed to this after several gifts were exchanged, and the Peridot became mostly autonomous vassals of the Rahenraj for the next two hundred years. During this time, many of the peridot left the hills of the Serpentspine and settled across Rahen, often in urban communities where they could ply their trades and have ample customers.

Under the rule of Thrim VI in the 300s BA, the dwarves prospered on the surface, but continued to disseminate from the western hills, which were rich in metals but poor in all other things. The King of the Peridot took to travelling around Rahen to visit with the many pockets of his people who had settled in the cities of the realm. This great procession between the Peridot communities meant the king was almost always on the road, and so he did not have a proper seat of power or even a throne. Instead, the seat of the Peridot people came to be known as “The Palanquin Throne”, and the procession “The Wandering Court”.

When the Rahenraj collapsed, the Peridot continued their self rule on the surface, but their then-monarch Thuri XI saw that the chaos of the emerging warlords period would be just as unkind to the dwarves as their human neighbours. At his direction, the warrior communities of the Peridot approached the former governor of Rayavashapal and offered to defend the city and its surrounding lands in exchange for autonomy and safety for any dwarves who came to the region. This relationship evolved into a power sharing agreement between the Peridot Kings and the Lords of Rayavashapal over the next two hundred and fifty years. In order to avoid any conflicting claims to power, the Peridot did not call themselves Kings of Rayavashapal or Pasiragha, but styled themselves as “Exilarch of Grôzumdihr, King of the Peridot People, Lord Protectors of Rakhadesh”. This de-facto dwarven kingdom would persist until year 36, when Harimar’s armies smashed the dwarven host on the field, and led them to sue for peace. Harimar’s peace terms were lenient, and much of the autonomy of the Peridot people was preserved, but the Exilarchs could no longer use the title king. Thus, ultimately, the Exilarch was left landless and without a claim of kingship, becoming the cultural head of a people without a state, who would still travel between his people’s communities and organise cooperation between increasingly independent dwarven exclaves.