Pelervar/Mott Caridin and the Dwarven Holds: Difference between revisions
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Latest revision as of 00:33, 9 June 2026
| Type | Independent dwarven city-kingdoms |
|---|---|
| Foremost seat | Mott Caridin |
| Ruler | The preeminent dwarven king (precedence over the lesser kings) |
| Faith | Durroch |
| Relation to Free Cities | Independent ally |
| Location | Mountains above the Western Marches |
In the mountains above the Western Marches lies a separate people and a separate power: the dwarven city-kingdoms, independent of the Free Cities and loosely allied with them.
Mott Caridin
Mott Caridin is their foremost seat — a great mountain-hold of royal halls, deep roads, and craft districts, and the seat of the preeminent dwarven king. Each dwarven city keeps its own lesser king and rules its own affairs; Mott Caridin does not command them, but holds precedence in tradition, in disputes between cities, in high diplomacy, and in the shared concerns of all the holds.
Law, Oath, and Debt
Dwarven life runs on law, oath, and debt. Their society is built of craft houses and debt-keepers, stonewrights and lesser courts, all answerable to dwarven law and the royal judgement of the king, and all shaped by Durroch — the weight beneath the mountain, the god of stone, debt, and the honest account. To a dwarf, a debt is sacred and a thing made carelessly is a kind of sin; this is why their bonds, their craft, and their word are trusted across the region.
Alliance with the Free Cities
The two are not one realm — the dwarves answer to no council and fly no charter — but the ties are old and warm. Dwarves live and work openly in the cities, most of all in Ashford; dwarven craft underlies the very stonework the human guilds practise (see the Stonemasons Guild); and there is a deep kinship between dwarven debt-keepers and the human keepers of oaths and ledgers (see the Quiet Ledger).
The Old Grief
The dwarves carry an old grief they rarely name to outsiders: that the greater part of their people long ago moved upward, out of the deep places where Durroch's presence is strongest. Dwarven faith regards this as a slow turning-away that no one ever chose, and the deepest holds are still kept by a dwindling number of those who remain below. What they keep vigil over is not a thing dwarves discuss with anyone who is not of the stone.