Hold of Hehodovar

**Hehodovar** was a dwarf hold in the Middle Dwarovar known as *Hehogrim's Home*, renowned for being the first dwarven hold to be constructed and being the home of engineering and construction. The Pyrite Dwarf Builder's Guild was a prominent institution in the hold, where architects would compete together to create greater and greater works, and marvels in engineering. Many strange and awe inspiring events occurred in the hold, especially happening during the many celebrations of Groundbreaker Day which had areas of the hold completely restructured.

## Culture and Customs

The builders of Hehodovar were organised in a Builders Guild led by the Builders High-Architect, the greatest builder in the hold. Chosen through election by the guild members, one’s standing to take this position increased with every new project completed. Between the elections, speculators would often predict who would be the next High-Architect through a list called the Builders Standing, a public tally of the personal prestige of each architect’s work. The Standing motivated builders to make more innovative designs with every project and work harder to complete them, giving them a quick solution to every architectural problem.

Every year on the 5th of Bloomsdawn, the birthday of Hehogrim the Diligent, there was a great gathering at the Builders Guild called Groundbreaker Day. Thinkers, architects, inventors, and others came together to celebrate the legacy of the designer of holds, and here they discussed new ideas and drank fine beer while also putting on a fancy show of new ideas. The amount of alcohol consumed at this party had been the cause of many controversies regarding the actions of the intelligentsia while drunk, but many rather revolutionary ideas came out of the drunk thinkers' mouths, and were used to great effect.

The Pyrite Dwarves were said to be "cursed" with a strange addiction to work, and would quite literally kill themselves should they be stuck in a prolonged period of time without any work. Many historians and scientists have attempted to find the source of this "curse", yet none have succeeded, and even now no theory to explain it have been accepted. Even stranger, it can manifest in dwarves outside Hehodovar with Pyrite Dwarf blood seemingly randomly, with no factors that could influence it having been documented.

### Reestablishment of the Segbandal

With the fall of Amldihr in 5895 BA, Grônstunad declared itself as the overlord of Aul-Dwarov and established the Jade Empire. However, with Gor Vazumbrog loyal to Amldihr due to its ancestral charge immediately severed ties with Grônstunad. Hehodovar had been one of the first not in line with the Jade Empire and followed suit in joining Gor Vazumbrog along with the other holds of the Middle Dwarovar in opposition to the Empire and in 5848 BA, and after much discussions, officially joined the reestablished Segbandal.

### Day of Ashen Skies

With the devastation of the Day of Ashen Skies around the Dwarovar, Hehodovar’s elaborate water transportation system built on the 27,000th Groundbreaker Day, suffered catastrophic failure as the entire bottom layer of the was flooded and the next decade was spent pumping the lower levels.

### Orcish Invasion of the Middle Dwarovar

Since Gor Vazumbrog's fall in 472, the orcs had launched repeated attacks on Hehodovar and the surrounding area in an attempt to sack the hold. These were largely unsuccessful due to having to face the armies of the other Segbandal holds as well that blocked the rails outside Hehodovar. However as the warband passed through, the Segbandal started to reclaim the rails when they could, in order to keep supply lines between the holds. In 816, the holds of Seghdihr and Verkal Gulan had a quarrel over the usage of the gold mined in Verkal Gulan and where to best use it. Worried that this quarrel would lead to military action, leading to Verkal Gulan and Seghdihr to withdraw their forces from Hehodovar. Missing half its garrison, Hehodovar was unable to repel the next orcish onslaught and the remaining Pyrite and Topaz Dwarves retreated into the hold and barred the gates.

### The Great Madness

The sack of Gor Ozumbrog had more effects than just destruction upon the hold itself. The armies of Hehodovar, wracked by guilt, were overcome with a severe depression that began to spread to the rest of the hold. Suicides were common at first by those who engaged in the violence, and those untainted by the madness began to flee to Verkal Gulan or Seghdihr. The madness that had afflicted Hehodovar by this time had reached a crescendo. Those sane enough to leave had long done so if able, the remainder forced deeper and deeper into the hold as the insanity spread like a plague, seemingly infecting without care or remorse. One day, the hold simply fell silent, and the survivors emerged into a scene of bloodshed and brutality.

Entire sections of the hold had been demolished, caved in, defaced, or otherwise made unlivable. Those still traversable were uninhabitable, as a sickening miasma had begun to emerge from the one commonality between every scene- that being dead dwarves. Forced out of the hold lest they became sick, the survivors fled to Seghdihr and the first hold fell silent after 28,175 years of continuous inhabitation.