The Once-Sundered Mountains

When the Eternal Mountains sank into the sea during
the First Incursion of Kaos, the Ædar of the great cities of Belak and Khalorak
were forced to the surface at the tops of the highest peaks, now standing as
islands amidst the devastation. Their capital destroyed and royal families dead,
the Ædar found themselves ungoverned and trapped on this new archipelago, a
place they named "the Sundered Mountains."

Over
several thousand years, these dwarves increased in height and strength,
metalworking gave way to shipbuilding as their craft of choice, and they began
to call themselves Firbolgs, from the Khazid word for "a carrier of things."
They created their own culture and in doing so became known as the greatest
sailors on the northern seas.

Then,
thousands of years after their civilization had adapted to life on the surface,
the unexpected happened: the Sundered Mountains rose from the sea. The
Worldquake brought back the ancient domain of the Firbolgs, which were quickly renamed
again as "the Once-Sundered Mountains." The sailors lost the channels
between their islands, and while they still loved the sea, began to look inward
towards the no-longer sunken cities they had left behind.

But
the Firbolgs did not find their ancient halls as welcoming as they had hoped.
The passages to Belak were lost, apparently forever, and the former capital of
Khalorak... there they found a city that they came to realize would have been
better to remain undiscovered. Terrible aberrations called aboleths had come to
reside in the submerged city, and the most powerful of their kind -- the
hideous and colossal Underlord Golorath -- had made his den in the chamber of
their fallen king.

The
largest Firbolg settlements on the surface of the mountains, such as Flotsam,
Jetsam, Sunk, and Drowned, their capital, also play home to human sailors and
Ædar craftsmen that have set up shop to support their surface-born brethren. A
small number of other races, such as halflings and Sidhborne, reside their as
well, and there is nowhere on Ceilar with a greater concentration of Emanyn's
shrines and clergy. Only Moradin, the patron of all dwarves, finds a greater following
here.

Aside
from the Ædar and Gnomes, with whom they share the Alliance of Stone, the
Firbolg have long been allies of the Searian people and, more reluctantly at
times, the Kæri to the south. They freely trade with all the allied races,
including the G'kota lizardfolk of the north, and some have even sailed the
seas from Ceilar to distant Thyrin in the west, trading with the Naichaens and
Saerasi on the eastern coasts. They maintain those alliances today despite the
advice of their now-reclusive Ædar cousins.

And
while they share many of the enmities of their Ædar brethren, the Firbolgs also
have their own axes to grind. Long ago, they fought for supremacy of the sea
with the Rakasta before the catfolk's disappearance and violent return to the world,
and still hold some animosity for the feline warriors that now freely walk the eastern
shores of Seawn... though their relationship is slowly improving with tenuous
trade relations being established. Their greatest enemy, however, is the pirate
nation of Corsair. The pirates and freebooters of that island have long been a
thorn in side of the sundered dwarves' fleet.

And
while they have seen the dangers and insanity that await them beneath the
mountains and returned their attention to the seas, not all Firbolgs are
satisfied with that decision. Recently, their race has split beneath two banners: the Sea King, who
wishes to maintain their status quo as a sea-faring race of explorers and the
preeminate navy on any continent, and the Stone Duke, who has begun funding
expeditions into the depths of the Once-Sundered Mountains in opposition to the
Sea King's command, hoping to reclaim the former kingdom of his people.