Dru'Bazan¶
"Your Orc-friend may not find a warm welcome in Duer'allen." — a dwarf of Kaelten (S328)
Dru'Bazan is the dwarven kingdom of the Blue Mountains, "roughly 20 clans" each under its own King, "but all the clans swear fealty under the High King" (S372). Its people are "widely referred to as the ironbeards or the blue mountain dwarves (in less affectionate slang they are called grimbeards)" (S372).1 In the Fourth Age its capital is Duer'allen, and a High Councillor of the kingdom received travellers at the pasture village of Kaelten (S328); in the Age of Magic its capital was Cath'Bazan (S372). In the Fifth Age the kingdom fell to the Hollowing and lived on as a king-in-exile's cause (S319), then as "an independent city-state under the protection of the Proturan Pact", "a dwarven settlement deep in the underdark below the ancient dwarven halls of Dru'Bazan" (S066). Also spelled Dru-Bazan.
The kingdom¶
Duer'allen¶
Duer'allen is "the capital of Dru'bazan", reached by under-road from Kaelten; from it "one of the eastern under-roads" runs to Dalmar (S328). The Compendium knows it too: by the end of the first millennium MA the Draconian Empire of Pherox "spanned from the gates of Duer'allen ... in the West to the Kingdom of Sulai in the East" (S372). Orcs are not welcome there (S328).
Kaelten¶
Kaelten Meadow, "Kaelten" for short, is "a high mountain pasture village" where the High Councillor Gunril of "the Dwarven kingdom of Dru'Bazan" received the Escape from the Underdark party and the shaman Hamruhn lifted a shadow-curse from them (S328). The village "raises Mountain Goats, Sheep and Yaks": about seventy workers keep some ten thousand sheep, two thousand goats and two thousand yaks, "1000 sheep per worker + dog", with another twenty working cheese and wool (S328). From Kaelten three ways lead out: the under-road to Duer'allen and on to Dalmar; down-mountain south "into Orc territory", the clans of Val'mulrek; and down-mountain north-east into Angorath, "a fallen kingdom beset by banditry" (S328).
Durn'kovac¶
Durn'kovac, "Kovac", is the seat of Clan Khezderk "in Dru-Bazan"; two of the Escape from the Underdark party were Khezderk dwarves of Kovac working as caravan guards on the road to Rockport (S328).
Gar'Agor¶
Gar'Agor is "part of Dru'Bazan" and the origin of the Sancturi campaign's dwarf Abither; its captain is Ballifor (S192, S193, S201). The notes that name it also name a company of the Darkwalker Clan: witches, rangers, "Heavy Dwarven Infantry -- Plate, Tower Shields, Warhammers, Flechette Rifles", Khardic battle priests with runemauls and an engineer (S201).
Cath'Bazan¶
Cath'Bazan was the capital in the Age of Magic. The most powerful clan, the Marken'Ouran, controlling "almost a quarter of the total population", held "2 large dwarf holds, in addition to numerous valley settlements", and occupied "a good portion of the capitol city, Cath'Bazan" under High King Huran II, King of Marken'Ouran (S372, S429).
The Cursed Dwarven Hold¶
A small abandoned hold of Dru'Bazan in the mountains above the Whitefall caverns, reached from old iron mines in the Underdark. Its lower halls were "a small colony of 80 or so goblins" ruled by the quaggoth Ingoh, "humanoid bear 8ft tall". "The upper halls are cursed (dead dwarves with loot/coins/rich, dead goblins that attempted to loot them). Touching anything forces your spirit to split", into a hostile double. Yetis guard the cursed hold from outside, and its dwarven gates open onto "a high mountain pass, snowed in" (S328). The curse the party carried out of it was a shadow-curse, lifted at Kaelten.
Fort Hemertyll¶
In the Fifth Age Dru'Bazan keeps a garrison in the Rift: Fort Hemertyll in the Kor'Bazan Cluster, "a mid-size town and fortress" trading metal goods, ale and meat (S066).
Society¶
Clan rule "is generally patriarchal, bloodlines are based on the mother's line. So a child born to father of clan1, mother of clan2 would belong to clan2 by birth. Female dwarves are also not expected to leave their clans for marriage, the male lives with the clan of his wife, becoming a member of that clan. For this reason, older dwarves rarely marry outside their clans ..., though arranged marriages across clans of young dwarves are common. Clan Kings and their Magistrates mete out justice within their clan, though serious disputes are often settled in the arena" (S372). Clans named across the ages include Marken'Ouran (S372); Khezderk (S328); and in the Fifth Age Ironmountain, Bladehelm, Darkglory, Silverbeard, Darkbeard, Ironfoot, Deepglory, Rockwall and Darkwalker (S319). The Dru'Bazan Engineering Guild was founded by members of a clan of the kingdom (S125). The kingdom's dwarves are famous smiths and "one of the principle suppliers of iron and steel across Numenia" (S372).
History¶
The Compendium's Dru'Bazan is a living mountain kingdom of the Age of Magic, with Pherox at Duer'allen's gates in the first millennium MA and driven out of the Blue Mountains by the second (S372). The Fourth Age kingdom of Kaelten and Duer'allen (S328) is the same realm with its roads still open.
Dru'Bazan is counted among the nations "rebuilding and prospering" in the Broken Sea area in the first years of the Sancturi calendar (S326), and the Proturan regional timeline shows the "Dwarves of Dru'Bazan" as a civilization of south-west Astia from about 200 AL, in the Fifth Age (S107). By 704 SM the Hollowing had emptied the halls: "many dwarves still identify as part of Dru'Bazan and dream of returning to their ancestral holds in the Blue Mountains, but live scattered across the kingdoms. They have a king-in-exile, Volgin Trollmane, anointed by Khardas, whom they revere as their true authority" (S319). Volgin "has been organizing mercenaries and dwarves to clear out one of the most southern holds and they have established an outpost there", travelling "between the kingdoms and their reclaimed hold in order to recruit and gather funding" (S319). With him stood Hagrael Wyrmcleaver, who "struck down a raiding Black dragon", Ranog Demonbane, "legendary witch hunter and demonslayer", and the runesmith Kaelin Stonewright III (S319). "The only problem: the Hollowing" (S134); and a plot to kill Volgin, "funded by one of the Riven Kings who has seen an exodus of dwarves in their kingdom to help Volgin", since "dwarves are useful and productive subjects" (S134). The exile's politics are the matter of the Dru'Bazan in Exile page.
By the time of the Proturan gazetteer, Dru'Bazan is a settlement "deep in the underdark below the ancient dwarven halls", an independent city-state under the Proturan Pact with a garrison in the Rift (S066).
Gap
The sources do not say when the kingdom of Kaelten and Duer'allen became the exile of 704 SM, or how the exile became the underdark settlement of the Proturan era; nor do they name the southern hold Volgin reclaimed.
Earlier accounts¶
- The Compendium (S372, S384) and the compiled overview (S429) name the capital Cath'Bazan and the High King Huran II; the Fourth Age notes (S328), the newest source, name the capital Duer'allen and a High Councillor, Gunril, at Kaelten. The ages differ, so both may stand; the Compendium's own mention of "the gates of Duer'allen" shows the city existed in the Age of Magic too.
- The Compendium calls the Blue Mountains' dark elves "the Moradrim" in one passage and "the Miradrim" in another (S372, S429).
In Play¶
Dwarves of Dru'Bazan appear as caravan guards, mercenaries, engineers and exiles across the kingdoms, and as a garrison in the Rift. Kaelten receives strangers who come down from the cursed hold; Duer'allen does not receive orcs. The Escape from the Underdark chronicle tells of the pass, the hold and the meadow; the Sancturi campaign of Gar'Agor and Hal'Abannak.