RE: Crisis Cycles
01-14-2020, 04:11 AM
Culture Name: The underground city of Gildrak Hold, home to the Gildrak clan of dwarves.
Banner: Gold!
Government and Leader: Dagram II of the Gildrak is the current clan-king of Gildrak Hold. The city was founded by Dagram's father, Dagram the Delver, also known as Dagram the Peacemaker for his signing the Dove Concordance. Gildrak Hold is ruled as a despotic kingdom, with traditional customs and a council of elders, led by the most respected long-bearded lawgiver, dictating the few situations where the power of the king is checked.
Society: Dwarves have always resided in the caves and tunnels of the mountains to the east of the Great Plateau, and their clans have long feuded with one another. Though membership of a clan is said to be a kin-bond and the most common way of joining a clan is to be born into it, it is also fairly common for dwarves joining a settlement permanently to adopt their clan. Individual clans hold various settlements and burrows throughout the highlands of the Great Plateau and the mountains beyond.
Gildrak Hold was established a little over a hundred years ago by the first Dagram, the current king's father. The dwarves were migrants from the east, a roughshod collection of prospectors and chancers drawn by the lure of an untapped vein of gold. The original mining settlement struck a vein far larger than they had expected, and when word got out, more and more dwarves joined the Gildrak clan, seeking to join the wealthy hold. With them, they (claim to have) brought the ironworking and runecarving technologies of the dwarves to the people of the Great Plateau. Dagram I declared himself clan-king to take proper control of the goldmine, and his Hold rapidly grew into a small, bustling city, delved into the side of a cliff. A few windows and balconies peer from a little way up the cliffside, and a simple gatehouse protrudes from the base of the cliff - but most of the city is below even the entry level, carved into the solid bedrock, truly underground.
As a settlement formed of dwarves from many clans, Gildrak is a little more open and inviting than other dwarven holds, but it still holds true to dwarven tradition of metalworking, avarice and holding long grudges. Nevertheless, their young hall is open to visitors, and in particular they welcome the lizardfolk traders who ply the rivers, selling their jewellery and ironwork on to the other races of the plateau. The Gildrak dwarves are lovers of drink and song, and are less dour and humourless than other dwarves from further east, far beyond the borders of the plateau. The age of peace has brought more and more visitors to their hall, along with more trade opportunities.
Dwarves have always lived in centralized cities, and Gildrak Hold is no exception. With most of the population focused in a single city and its connected mines and shafts, in particular the Gildrak goldmine, the dwarves exhibit unusually high population density in that one small area. Some parts of the cavern and connected tunnels with access to underground springwater grow subterranean dwarven crops, with old mineshafts often being widened and converted into farms. Small burrows and delved hillocks form the outlying villages around Gildrak, where the population is far more agrarian and send food by caravan to feed the city. The way dwarves live in central, usually subterranean settlements makes them more resistant to invasion and outside attack. They rely on their natural hardiness and resistance to disease to ward off the damage of urban living, but they are still more vulnerable to more potent plagues, blights and famine than those with a more spread-out population.
Species: Dwarves are short, stout, strong, tough and long-lived. Most live to be around twice as old as humans, though in their youth they mature only slightly slower. A few especially stubborn dwarves live to over 200, and they do not grow frail as they age. They are swift and skilled miners, expert artisans and great lovers of alcohol. They are also avaricious, stubborn, and traditionally nurse old grudges in their long memories, never forgetting the smallest slight. They are well-adapted to living underground and in darkness, and poorly adapted to swimming, riding beasts and bright sunlight, and you wouldn't expect them to win many footraces. All dwarves, regardless of gender, sport long beards that continue to grow as they age, and it is the gravest of insults to cut off a dwarf's facial hair.
Stances on the three changes: Though the Gildrak clan did not invent magical rune carving themselves, the mountain dwarves have long held arcane carving traditions, and claim to be the original inventors of the practice of rune carving. There is some evidence that the knowledge spread via trade caravans to and from the less isolationist dwarven settlements. As you can imagine, Gildrak Hold keeps true to this tradition, and places a great emphasis on runecarving and the magic that can be channeled through carven runes.
The Dove Concordance was signed during the reign of Dagram I, the current king's father. It has benefited the Gildrak clan greatly, so they put modest means towards supporting it.
Dwarves nurse their grudges and remember slights, with little interest in seeing their disputes mediated by outsiders. As such, the Gildrak clan does not support the Wandering Listeners, instead maintaining a clan lawgiver. The Wandering Listeners are free to enter their holds, of course, and if dwarves want to ask them for help they may, but the Listeners must support themselves, and can expect no help from the clan-king.
Banner: Gold!
Government and Leader: Dagram II of the Gildrak is the current clan-king of Gildrak Hold. The city was founded by Dagram's father, Dagram the Delver, also known as Dagram the Peacemaker for his signing the Dove Concordance. Gildrak Hold is ruled as a despotic kingdom, with traditional customs and a council of elders, led by the most respected long-bearded lawgiver, dictating the few situations where the power of the king is checked.
Society: Dwarves have always resided in the caves and tunnels of the mountains to the east of the Great Plateau, and their clans have long feuded with one another. Though membership of a clan is said to be a kin-bond and the most common way of joining a clan is to be born into it, it is also fairly common for dwarves joining a settlement permanently to adopt their clan. Individual clans hold various settlements and burrows throughout the highlands of the Great Plateau and the mountains beyond.
Gildrak Hold was established a little over a hundred years ago by the first Dagram, the current king's father. The dwarves were migrants from the east, a roughshod collection of prospectors and chancers drawn by the lure of an untapped vein of gold. The original mining settlement struck a vein far larger than they had expected, and when word got out, more and more dwarves joined the Gildrak clan, seeking to join the wealthy hold. With them, they (claim to have) brought the ironworking and runecarving technologies of the dwarves to the people of the Great Plateau. Dagram I declared himself clan-king to take proper control of the goldmine, and his Hold rapidly grew into a small, bustling city, delved into the side of a cliff. A few windows and balconies peer from a little way up the cliffside, and a simple gatehouse protrudes from the base of the cliff - but most of the city is below even the entry level, carved into the solid bedrock, truly underground.
As a settlement formed of dwarves from many clans, Gildrak is a little more open and inviting than other dwarven holds, but it still holds true to dwarven tradition of metalworking, avarice and holding long grudges. Nevertheless, their young hall is open to visitors, and in particular they welcome the lizardfolk traders who ply the rivers, selling their jewellery and ironwork on to the other races of the plateau. The Gildrak dwarves are lovers of drink and song, and are less dour and humourless than other dwarves from further east, far beyond the borders of the plateau. The age of peace has brought more and more visitors to their hall, along with more trade opportunities.
Dwarves have always lived in centralized cities, and Gildrak Hold is no exception. With most of the population focused in a single city and its connected mines and shafts, in particular the Gildrak goldmine, the dwarves exhibit unusually high population density in that one small area. Some parts of the cavern and connected tunnels with access to underground springwater grow subterranean dwarven crops, with old mineshafts often being widened and converted into farms. Small burrows and delved hillocks form the outlying villages around Gildrak, where the population is far more agrarian and send food by caravan to feed the city. The way dwarves live in central, usually subterranean settlements makes them more resistant to invasion and outside attack. They rely on their natural hardiness and resistance to disease to ward off the damage of urban living, but they are still more vulnerable to more potent plagues, blights and famine than those with a more spread-out population.
Species: Dwarves are short, stout, strong, tough and long-lived. Most live to be around twice as old as humans, though in their youth they mature only slightly slower. A few especially stubborn dwarves live to over 200, and they do not grow frail as they age. They are swift and skilled miners, expert artisans and great lovers of alcohol. They are also avaricious, stubborn, and traditionally nurse old grudges in their long memories, never forgetting the smallest slight. They are well-adapted to living underground and in darkness, and poorly adapted to swimming, riding beasts and bright sunlight, and you wouldn't expect them to win many footraces. All dwarves, regardless of gender, sport long beards that continue to grow as they age, and it is the gravest of insults to cut off a dwarf's facial hair.
Stances on the three changes: Though the Gildrak clan did not invent magical rune carving themselves, the mountain dwarves have long held arcane carving traditions, and claim to be the original inventors of the practice of rune carving. There is some evidence that the knowledge spread via trade caravans to and from the less isolationist dwarven settlements. As you can imagine, Gildrak Hold keeps true to this tradition, and places a great emphasis on runecarving and the magic that can be channeled through carven runes.
The Dove Concordance was signed during the reign of Dagram I, the current king's father. It has benefited the Gildrak clan greatly, so they put modest means towards supporting it.
Dwarves nurse their grudges and remember slights, with little interest in seeing their disputes mediated by outsiders. As such, the Gildrak clan does not support the Wandering Listeners, instead maintaining a clan lawgiver. The Wandering Listeners are free to enter their holds, of course, and if dwarves want to ask them for help they may, but the Listeners must support themselves, and can expect no help from the clan-king.