Crisis Cycles

Culture Name: Gildrak Hold: The Era of Ankh-Tawy.

Government and Leader: King Yaem Atmi. The new leader of the reunited Gildrak Hold, a descendant of King Dagram II who had returned to Gildrak Hold to bring back the united strength of the dwarven people and gather together the culture and history found in the centuries. He rules over a democratic council that can veto him, called "Shai-Consulars." These Shai-Consulars are representatives of seperate holds and communities they are responsible for taking direct care of and speaking of their concerns. King Yaem Atmi.

Society: A hard working and introspective lot. In recent years, the idea of finding a faith or philosophy to follow has taken on hold, leading to philosophical debates and charms and speakers and questers and wise men and trinket-sellers and priests finding room to speak and find patronage or guidance. Maybe it was the appearance of gods and plagues and the deep below that shook the cultures of these dwarves into the pondering mindset about reality, maybe it the mysticism and ways that Yaem Atmi has developed and brought from the Shamir worm culture himself, that let the dwarves of Gildrak begin thinking and discussing things more openly inbetween a days hard work. As it is now, the various faiths and discussions have led many a dwarf to  go questing to find their own way and path, which in turn has led to a more cosmopolitan and less xenophobic and guarded view of strangeness or newness.

Dwarves still prefer their physical constructions and epic works, but are a little more open about creation for the sake of creation and some more art and whimsy in things leading to a sort of renaissance of dwarven infrastructure from their ancient pasts and diverse paths taken up to this point as well as the history of the world afar. 

Species: Dwarves!

Stances on the three changes: Love: Yes. Dwarves setting up shop with other races as partners has been becoming more and more common, as well as the crossing of lines between old clans and bloodlines more freely. PDAs are still considered a bit... much perhaps, intimacy should be intimate, but it's less gossip-worthy or frowned upon as older generations lighten up.
Bottomless: Yes. Rock and stone. If there's one thing that still calls to dwarves, it's to go deep.
Sky: No. Sometimes you need to get somewhere quickly, but even in the youngest and most free-spirited of Gildrak hold dwarves prefer to keep their feet on their ground, even if they can appreciate the craft of the sky ships.

Major cultural influence: Shamir worm something.

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Notes!!!
In ancient times, there was anchor hold, from where the drazhul dwarves migrated from and founded gildrak hold. Kind durgrim the 1st signed an accord with the elves and lizards, after a hundred years the next guy picked a fight with the shamir wyrm people, who were sending them knives with messages about implications that the dwarves have stolen magical secrets from the shamir. The king remembered a memory of looking under the throne, with a note that said destroy the evidence, and a desecrated hand. He went to the shamir and came back different, making amends with the shamir.

He made a school to study the metal to make magical carvings. This school also tried to make a cure for the plague. Artifacts were found that the orcs stole. His daughter made gildrak hold more insular, to stop the plague spreading, which affected their outrock. Under kind durgram 2 reign, tried to make colonies but they didn't so well. They expanded into the grasslands because of a rumour that the orcs were becoming peaceful, and the orcs then immediately made forts around their border.

King durgram 3 had a grudge against the cool elves for taking over a hold. He made a bunch of deals and double deals to screw people over but kept backfiring. He asked the ancient hold of anchor hold for war machines to suppress his people.  A bunch of his country just rebelled and left to join the republic.

In the next era, gildrak hold turned into multiple holds, each led by a "true" heir. The school joined the moon people, ceding away from the dwarven hold. The Shamir had a secret allience with the science dwarves. This alliance has extended to the moon people, of the science people, shamir people and moon people who figured out the giant worms are what destroyed the shamir heritage. The science dwarves have found out a way to dig to the moon by working with the moon people. The holds have sort of joined back together. The Rotpah holds who like dwarves and hate formal are the sole monarchistic part of the hold.