Hold of Hul-Jorkad

## Hul Jorkad

**Hul-Jorkad** was a dwarf hold in the West Dwarovar known as *Jorkad Hall*, the home of plumbing, advanced sewers and engineering. The Lead Dwarves were known for pioneering advanced plumbing and sanitation of water all across the Dwarovar thanks to Lake Jorkad, which they also used extensively for other purposes. More infamously, it is known as the place where orcs appeared for the first time, and from where the race got their name.

## Culture and Customs

Hul-Jorkad was considered as a mostly insignificant hold during the time of the Aul-Dwarov. It served an important role as guardian of the nearby Dwarovrod rail junction but also as the foremost civil engineers of the Aul-Dwarov, having mastered plumbing, waste recycling and waterworking. Jorkad Lake was important to the hold as they piped much of the water from there to all of the Dwarovar and to power various machines in Hul-Jorkad. The lake was also used for fishing and harvesting plants for a food source, which greatly increased the nutritional diversity of the Lead Dwarves.

With the expansive sewer network also came unwanted visitors, Ironweave Skitterers would leave their webs to clog the sewers, careless goblin squatters would damage the walls through digging and strange abominations rose within the tunnels as a byproduct of alchemy and magic. The military of Hul-Jorkad would not rest outside of wartime, deploying strategies new an old against the scourges of the sewers, even having young warriors venture forth into the aqueducts and sewers as a right of passage to slay whatever plagued their great network.

The junction of the Dwarovrod that connected the Serpentreach, West and Middle Dwarovar was an important location for Hul-Jorkad, as it was a hub for interconnectivity of the empire and trade within it. To utilise such a strategic location, the Lead Dwarves outfitted the junction with many facilities to enable trade before caravans left for their destinations. Top notch security and many goods from the hold encouraged visitation from all over the Dwarovar not only for trade, but also for tourism, many enjoyed the enigmatic and magnificent systems of of pipes and aqueducts that both astounded the eye and proved extremely useful, leading to specialized bathhouses and breweries fed by only the most rarefied water.

Hul-Jorkad was primarily known for its lead, which led to many alchemists making pilgrimages to the hold to try their hand in turning it to gold. The last king of Hul-Jorkad is believed to have been so obsessed with the secrets of alchemical magic, that he became afflicted with intense greed. The toxic nature of lead has long been known throughout the Serpentspine. While many fools have poisoned themselves with poorly kept pipes, been fool enough to disrespect the metal and use it in paints, or many other common mistaken usages, the Lead Dwarves knew lead's place: Used as ammunition for the shot towers, flowing through alchemical instruments, and behind the pipes guiding waters flow within pipes conveying Halann's safest and most desirable water. Through intelligent use of a dangerous material, the dwarves of Hul Jorkad keep finding safer, more efficacious uses for their second most abundant resource. Bright folk envied the lead-lined lives of the Lead Dwarves. Wise ones know their pipes aren't.

## History

#### The Fall of Hul-Jorkad

During the Precursor War, in 6275 BA a force of Precursor Elves under the command of Ducaniel started laying siege to Hul-Jorkad from the Jorkad Lake region. It would take them 65 years to siege and in 6210 BA Hul-Jorkad would fall to the elven army. The defending dwarves, already facing equipment shortages with most fortifications in disrepair, simply couldn't hold out. Preparations to use the hold as a staging ground for further conquests into the Serpentspine were interrupted by a call for all pre-cursor elves to return to the Precursor Empire in Aelantir. Ducaniel ignored this in favor of finishing the war, but in 6100 BA he was faced with a large dwarven army set to reconquer Hul-Jorkad.

Without access to elven reinforcements, Ducaniel's forces quickly lost what ground they had managed to take, and were forced into the lower levels of the hold. When reaching the fourth and final level, Ducaniel started his experiments and what would a century later lead to the creation of the orcs. Almost 100 years later, in 6000 BA, horde after horde of newly created Orcs started attacking the hold from within. It is believed that no dwarves from the hold made it out alive after the initial assault, definitively ending the history of Hul-Jorkad.