WHY URGUAN HAD TO FALL

[sneakybandit 1650]

 

 

---

ᚾᛟ × ᚲᛁᚾᚷᛊ × ᛒᚢᛏ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛊᛁᛚᚢᛖᚱᛒᛖᚨᚱᛞᛊ

WHY URGUAN HAD TO FALL

ᚾᛟ × ᚷᛟᛞᛊ × ᛒᚢᛏ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛒᚱᚨᛏᚺᛗᛟᚱᛞᚨᚲᛁᚾ

 

---

 

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛟᚱᛁᚷᛁᚾᚨᛚ × ᛊᛁᚾ

THE ORIGINAL SIN

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛟᚱᛁᚷᛁᚾᚨᛚ × ᛊᛁᚾ

 

Long ago, in the land of Atlas, the dwarves reunited under the leadership of Paragon Fimlin Grandaxe. We cast down the axes and hammers that had slain our brothers, and picked up the crown of a new realm. The Kingdom of Agnarum and then the Underrealm of Urguan were pure creations that brought honor to Yemekar. 

 

But in our hubris, we cast down these new and pure realms in a patriotic fervor to make the Grand Kingdom of Urguan once more. But I ask you, what honor did we achieve that allowed the rebirth of our ancient kingdom? For what reason was Fimlin’s Underrealm not good enough? Was it the attempt to remake a new realm for our people? Or perhaps the dedication to carve out a realm away from the surface dwellers and build our new home in the ground?

 

No, the remaking of our realm was for personal gain. It was political infighting that rebirthed the Grand Kingdom, the attempt of Utak to win political favor from the traditionalist clans in the senate, and to appeal to his base of war-hungry mountain clans. But at least, a glorious victory gave us cause to reform the Grand Kingdom, right? Some great battle gave us the prestige we needed to claim the title after the Wars of the Beards? No, it was a short war in which we crushed a small throng of Uruk children who had raided our border. Many elders even believe that these so-called ‘raiders’ were, in fact, crisis actors.

 

So now I wonder, did we earn these ancient titles from caving in the skull of a few orcish outlaws? Obviously not.

 

ᛚᛁᚾᚷᛖᚱᛁᚾᚷ × ᚹᛟᚢᚾᛞᛊ

LINGERING WOUNDS

ᛚᛁᚾᚷᛖᚱᛁᚾᚷ × ᚹᛟᚢᚾᛞᛊ

 

Despite the weak foundations upon which our kingdom was built, it was not doomed from the start. As with everything, it had the possibility of greatness, assuming dwarves of pure intentions were at the reins. But for centuries, the Grand Kingdom was helmed by political schemers who would be at home in most Umri and Elgi courts. Where once, before the war of the beards, we came together as the sons of Urguan to solve whatever problems opposed our realm. But another mortal wound that tore at the heart of our realm was the lingering wound from the War of the Beards. Our trust was shattered, though the war ended, we had not healed as a people. 

 

The yearly council meetings became the new battlefield where the War of the Beards was waged. We left our swords at the door and took to the podiums to win the war of words. Though still, there were enough competent elder dwarves who steered the head of our council to win great victories.

 

We had truly great kings, and had we remained as the Underrealm until the victory of Jorvin Starbreaker over the voidspawn, we might have earned the title of the Grand Kingdom. But even still, the wound lingered and continued to fester.

 

ᚨ × ᚾᛖᚹ × ᛟᚱᛞᛖᚱ

A NEW ORDER

ᚨ × ᚾᛖᚹ × ᛟᚱᛞᛖᚱ

 

The spirit of creation began to bloom in Arcass, unlike ever before, dwarves began to honor Yemekar and his spirit of creation. The forges of Urguan sang with hammersong, and our coffers flowed with commissions from Umri realms. But this growth of the craftsdwed clique intimidated the powers that remained from the civil war; dwarves who relied on strength to rule were confused by the rising power of dwarves who sought a simple life. So, they used their strength at arms to intimidate the craftsdwed into submission. Any dwarves that attempted to bring true and meaningful change to remedy the ills of Urguan were beaten in the streets and intimidated by the throng of masculine, flexing dwarven warriors.

 

But even now, I think these conflicts come from misunderstanding. These dwarves are natural allies, but they did not understand each other, so they came to blows at times. Both sides are guilty of this divide, and so I weep at this lost opportunity to remake the culture of our realm.

 

ᛁᚾᚲᛟᛗᛈᛖᛏᛖᚾᛏ × ᚲᛁᚾᚷᛊ

INCOMPETENT KINGS

ᛁᚾᚲᛟᛗᛈᛖᛏᛖᚾᛏ × ᚲᛁᚾᚷᛊ

 

Notably, after the reign of Norli, a new breed of dwarves rose to the throne of Urguan. Never again did a competent king sit on the obsidian throne; dwarves who rose to power got there via political scheming and no longer had the guiding hand of experienced elders. These dwarves were unable to fix the mortal wounds that ailed Urguan, and they were not equipped to handle the growing divide between the craftsdwed and warrior clans. Very often, they stoked the flames, using the divide to gain power where needed.

 

In ancient days, before the War of the Beards, kings reigned for on average 1-3 stone months. But this new breed of monarchs rule for nearly three times that length, leading to stagnancy and unproductive corruption.

 

ᛞᛖᚷᛖᚾᛖᚱᚨᚲᛁ × ᛁᚾ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚠᛟᚱᛖᛊᛏ

DEGENERACY IN THE FOREST

ᛞᛖᚷᛖᚾᛖᚱᚨᚲᛁ × ᛁᚾ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚠᛟᚱᛖᛊᛏ

 

Paragon Bjor was a dwarf truly worthy of being a paragon. To bring a group back from extinction is very admirable. But his successors did little to deserve the ugly forest lands they were granted in front of our cities. In secret, the forest dwarves practiced degenerate arts in their secluded forest retreats. I am not claiming all forest dwarves are inherently evil or degenerate. But their attempts to find their own culture backfired, which led them down a path of evil.

 

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚠᚨᛁᛚᚢᚱᛖ × ᛟᚠ ᚲᚺᚱᛟᚾᚺᚢᚾᛞᛗᚨᚱ

THE FAILURE OF KHRON’HUNDMAR

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚠᚨᛁᛚᚢᚱᛖ × ᛟᚠ ᚲᚺᚱᛟᚾᚺᚢᚾᛞᛗᚨᚱ

 

After so much tension, things had to obviously reach a boiling point between the warrior and craftsdwed cliques. Dwarves, tired of intimidation, finally had enough and sought a new hall for their work to thrive away from the oppressors.

 

During this separation, the warrior dwarves held back their worst impulses. They temporarily realized that their actions had alienated their kin and left them without a bustling city they relied upon as a base of support. So they attempted to win a war of words, and to appear reformed in an attempt to lure the craftsdwed back to the mountain homes. This separation worked in the long term, and many lessons were learned from the lingering failure of Khron’Hundmar.

 

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚲᛚᛟᚹᚾᛊ × ᛁᚾ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚲᛚᛖᚱᚷᛁ

THE CLOWNS IN THE CLERGY

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚲᛚᛟᚹᚾᛊ × ᛁᚾ × ᛏᚺᛖ × ᚲᛚᛖᚱᚷᛁ

 

At the beginning of the Khron’Hundmar chapter, the Kirkja Dverga was dissolved by Norli Starbreaker when he realized the best way to honor the gods was not via hollow and empty sermons and lectures, but by the physical imitation of his creation. For centuries, the faith of the Brathmordakin was reliant on these ceremonies, in which nothing was achieved and time was wasted. After this realization, the clergy should never have been reformed, but now that the institution lay vacant, it became a battleground in the culture war. Dwarves ‘reformed’ our ancient clergy in an attempt to gain political power, and in some cases, attempted to make their degeneracy religious law.

 

The Kirkja Dverga was on life support even before Norli disbanded it. It should never have returned, and up until the final days of Urguan, it became little more than a joke, it’s priests had less of an impact on our society than tavernkeepers.

 

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛚᛖᛏᚺᚨᚱᚷᛁᚲ × ᛏᚺᚱᛟᚾᛖ

THE LETHARGIC THRONE

ᛏᚺᛖ × ᛚᛖᛏᚺᚨᚱᚷᛁᚲ × ᛏᚺᚱᛟᚾᛖ

 

And now we come to the fall of Urguan, an event that could have been avoided had any other dwarf reigned at the helm. Ulfar Starbreaker dealt the deathblow to our Kingdom, but it should have happened centuries prior. For some unknown reason, likely a joke of the Brathmordakin at our expense, our kingdom stubbornly endured. Attempts at meaningful change were halted at every attempt; we were doomed to fail and bound to pull each other under the water.

 

But what did Ulfar do, you ask? He sat upon the obsidian throne for longer than any dwed had the right. And this has become an unfortunate trend in the last centuries of Urguan. As I have previously mentioned, ancient kings ruled for around one to three stone months at a time. This allowed fresh blood to take over when leadership stagnated. But you might also say that no one else wished to take up the throne, so Ulfar could not step down. And yes, this is true, but how in this environment of stagnancy could someone even rise to such a position? After such a long time of stagnant leadership, new growth in the community was doomed to failure without means of support.

 

I can say from my personal experience. I had returned from my long journeys some time before the war began. And attempts I made to rebuild the Rhun Oathed succeeded moderately well, despite efforts from some of the government officials who rarely showed their faces save for extracting taxes from hard-working dwarves.

 

There was real talent in our halls, but no support came from on top to help these young beardlings. Only when I built up a strong foundation did I see many of these dwarves thrive.

 

And with the onset of the war, I tried to offer my experience to the government. But my missives were only ever returned in the final hours when the doom was already sealed.

 

ᚨᚢᛟᛁᛞᚨᛒᛚᛖ × ᛞᛟᛟᛗ

AVOIDABLE DOOM

ᚨᚢᛟᛁᛞᚨᛒᛚᛖ × ᛞᛟᛟᛗ

 

The Grand Kingdom was doomed since Utak proclaimed it in the halls of the former Underrealm, but nonetheless, it endured for centuries. Despite the efforts of many to crack down on creativity, it thrived in the cracks of our cities. Despite the threats posed to us by the world, we survived. Despite the constant infighting and bickering, we were brothers. And only now, when our divisions reached a breaking point, and our throne was denied the respect it deserved, we are defeated.

 

 

---

 

ᚺᛟᚹ × ᚹᛖ × ᚲᛟᚾᛏᛁᚾᚢᛖ

HOW WE CONTINUE

ᚺᛟᚹ × ᚹᛖ × ᚲᛟᚾᛏᛁᚾᚢᛖ

 

My kinsdwed, all is not yet lost; there is a path forward. Together, we can build a new realm that is not just an echo of our past. Our differences can not be set aside, but we can harness them to rebuild our society. Through extensive research into our history, learning from the failures of many holds and kingdoms. I have compiled a list of theses.

 

1. THE CLANS MUST CHANGE.

Since the beginning, clans have been a strength to our society. But when they have an incentive to overrecruit and prey upon young clanless beardlings, they can quickly sap the lifeblood from our race. We have all seen it countless times: a beardling arrives fresh-faced from the mines, and it is instantly discovered that they were in fact the long-lost kin of x clan. It cares not if the dwarf was raised his whole life to be a smith, but had a sudden bout of Treebeard ancestry. Or if he has the natural talent of a merchant, but his mother’s dog’s second cousin was Fimlin Grandaxe. The end result is still the same: clans are often incentivised to overrecruit young dwarves to meet the requirements for a council vote, or the minimum population needed to found their own hold. What ends up happening, however, is that these young beardlings were not meant to be part of these clans, and they return to the mines never to be seen again.

 

How do we solve this you ask? Simple, we must come together and agree not to overrecruit these beardlings. If allowed, they will often seek out the clans they most harmonize with, leading to productive, active relationships on both sides.

 

Clans should be forbidden, and it should be made taboo to actively reach out to these beardlings and convince them of dubious past ancestry. Together, we can develop a system that encourages these young dwarves to seek out the elders of these clans and learn from each of them the ways of the clan. This would encourage learning and allow the beardlings to find what suits them best.

 

I am not, however, calling for all dwarves to be born clanless. Those trueborn sons and daughters of dwarves will, of course, be born into their clans.

2. THE CLERGY MUST CHANGE.

I ask any of you to name a single dwarven sermon that was held since Norli abolished Da Kirkja Dverga that stands out to you? Any event that was not just a checkbox for some acolyte to progress through the ranks or some feast to fulfill some sort of quota for ‘weekly events’.

 

The fact is, any of these ‘events’ ring hollow. I cannot think of a single clergy event I attended that was memorable. The fact is, any simple hunt or Rhun event is infinitely more interesting than anything the clergy has put on.

 

So how do we fix this? It is time we come to facts: the clergy needs to be finally and truly abolished. How do we worship the gods if we don't have a clergy? You worship the gods by embodying their values; you don't need to attend a useless sermon hosted by a boring dwarf to honor them. Go craft a pickaxe to honor Yemekar, scam an Umri to honor Armakak, and go touch grass to honor Dungrimm.

 

Each must find their own way to honor the gods, in the forge or in the hills; it is your prerogative. Who will keep record of our grudges, and who will declare our paragons? Simple, each clan and each hold should keep their own tomes of paragons and grudges. This solves multiple issues. We all already have differing views on the gods, so we should why should we not worship them slightly differently in ways that benefit us all?

3. THE REALM MUST CHANGE.

If the past centuries teach us nothing, it is that our institutions have failed us. Enmity between our factions has divided us. And past scars still wound us.

 

How do those of us who are foes work together? How does the craftsdwed work with the warrior? How do we avoid tearing each other apart? How do we avoid lethargy?

 

These are the questions we must answer, and it will take a long time to answer them. But I think in the future, our people should be decentralized. I believe that given some distance, we will become closer as a people. A strong confederation of holds and clans, allied in offense and defense, but given space to breathe from each other, may be stronger than any of our realms since the Wars of the Beards.

 

 

---

ᚹᚺᚨᛏ × ᚾᛟᚹ

WHAT NOW?

ᚹᚺᚨᛏ × ᚾᛟᚹ

I do not know where the Brathmordakin will take us from here, but I know it will be a turbulent time for our people. If you wish to speak or debate these issues, seek me out.

===================

 

Signed,

Darid Irongrinder.

(I hope you enjoyed my rant)

 

[josphgaming 32]

Is this Martin Luther Daird Irongrinder

 

Edited May 25 by josphgaming

[CHARLES THE BALD 2615]

Zahir Irongrinder, between two hallucinations of his heavy drug trip where he has been calling the death of everyone, rises his head up and down in agreement with his brother before returning to consuming drugs confronting his enemies and bashing his head against grass.

Edited May 25 by CHARLES THE BALD

[Norgeth 1894]

Myrddin Cobblepick, Follower of the Divine Greed, read Darid's words from a far-off dwelling deep within the underearth. He pondered, placing down his pickaxe of toil, pausing his extraction of meagre lead to think. "Per'aps tis Rhunite es roight, per'aps heh es wrong. . . Oi will nae claim toh know, but oi doh know one thing. Our sacred greed, our holeh avarice, eht must beh utilized, nae fer teh one, but fer ahll Khazadmar. Boi teh divine shadow, hail toh yer Grimdugan." he spoke, almost in prayer, before returning to his exiled work.

[Cheezboi9 617]

Pixtus would read the words of Darid and laugh. "It always beh dah ones dat donnae contribute dat cry dah loudest. Yeh cry about incompetence yet oi've nevah seen yeh doh aneh'tin, step up fer aneh'tin, an' when dah Gran'Kingdom falls, yeh point yer fingah cryin about ah past dat cannae beh changed. Noh wondah Urguan fell, buncha old'eads dat delude demselves whet times gone, tryin teh foind aneh reason teh blame anuddah raddah den step up an make ah difference"

The cave dwarf then dismisses his servus golem holding the report, focusing back on the stack of surface reports upon his stone table. After all, he wouldn't wait for others to seize the opportunity in taking down his enemies and cry about it in a missive later.

[Riot 743]

Dorin’s jaw tightens as he crumples the missive in his fist, tossing it aside with a bitter scoff.

“No true dwed hides behind parchment.”

[Serienl 29]

A young beardling of Clan Doomforged read the missive whilst contemplating deeply on its contents. He found merits in some of the points in which the Irongrinder brought up yet contention in others - especially regarding that of outlawing clans. Although the rest came off as rather sound to him but in any case, the people and times brought up in the missive was before him, thus not allowing him to draw a solid conclusion. 

 

"Wut duu ye t'ink, Thraegar?" 

 

The beardling passed the parchment to his Clan-Father  and elder, wishing to know his thoughts on the matter. 

 

Spoiler

@Apohet

 

[PanicZealot 648]

Does this mean you'll finally be playing your dwarf? Or is this another nothing burger from an old dwarf?

No hate sneaky.

[Apohet 1263]

4 hours ago, Serienl said:

A young beardling of Clan Doomforged read the missive whilst contemplating deeply on its contents. He found merits in some of the points in which the Irongrinder brought up yet contention in others - especially regarding that of outlawing clans. Although the rest came off as rather sound to him but in any case, the people and times brought up in the missive was before him, thus not allowing him to draw a solid conclusion. 

 

"Wut duu ye t'ink, Thraegar?" 

 

The beardling passed the parchment to his Clan-Father  and elder, wishing to know his thoughts on the matter. 

 

  Hide contents

@Apohet

 

The olden Doomforged of little Urguanite history read the parchment handed to him by the beardling. For a moment, he seemed genuinely absorbed. Then, slowly, he lowered the parchment and shook his head.

“Ramblin’s o’ old dwed who do naught but complain an’ sleep upon their own ordure.”

[Britannicvs 2508]

"I recall Darid actually trying to teach the new beardlings our culture and craft during the doom of Urguan, while these so called leaders of ours presided over the decline and destruction of our home, and did nothing. I hope none make the mistake of our ancestors and attempt to restore Urguan's rotting carcass, I am sure to be disappointed though." Narvi would muse in his exile, penning a letter to the Irongrinder. 

[z3m0s 1957]

Spoiler

 

 

Whispers echoed throughout the dark halls as subjects bickered amongst one another, parchment shuffling in hesitation.

 

"Come" echoed a scarred voice from within the darkness as the room fell silent.

 

Without delay an apprentice shuffled forth, offering the parchment toward the meditating figure within the center of the ritual chamber.

 

After a long moment a huff of breath left he.

 

"True of heart, just as I remember. . . I hope they can see your message for what it is old friend. Long gone be the embers of industry that inspired my tongue to preach upon deaf ears, t'is good to see your hope remains undying"

 

Lifting with the release of his grasp, the parchment began alight, illuminating the scarred figure a moment as ash washed away any trace from presence.

[DancingZebra267 1626]

Rhorgvar Frostbeard read over the missive quietly, rubbing at his beard before grunting under his breath. "Got some truth in dis... oi don't t'ink dere's been ah scheduled sermon in deh Kirkja Dverga fer one stone year now." He shook his head a little. "N' den dere's deh hypocrisy uv deh one dey call High Preceptor. Deh lad's ah shaman. Yeh don't just wake up wit' spirit magic one day, yeh worship spirits tuh get it. Dat's 'ow it works."

[DISCOLIQUID 2701]

"I mean, I know I was super evil when I was running the Clergy & that was a vibe-killer, but I did put a lot of effort into running events after Norli's departure," says mega-evil Dwarf-Demon, who used to run the Church shadowmaster style. "Dwarves are cool," they huff. "To kill!" They quickly add, so none of their really evil demon friends judge them. 

[The Tough Guy 4319]

"All Kengs after Norleh wereh probableh shoiteh. Wit' taeh soleh exception o' me, o'courseh."

 

Sigrun, the self-proclaimed last Great Grand King of Urguan decreed to himself before he wrote the same message to the public.

 

"All Kings after Norli were probably shit, with the sole exception of me, of course."

 

He nodded to himself once more before tending to an old flask, which would have been full of diseases were it not for the permanent high-proof alcohol inside.

[Carson 1165]

On 5/26/2026 at 12:20 AM, sneakybandit said:

Paragon Bjor was a dwarf truly worthy of being a paragon. To bring a group back from extinction is very admirable. But his successors did little to deserve the ugly forest lands they were granted in front of our cities. In secret, the forest dwarves practiced degenerate arts in their secluded forest retreats. I am not claiming all forest dwarves are inherently evil or degenerate. But their attempts to find their own culture backfired, which led them down a path of evil.

A letter finds its way to the author of the post, stamped with the insignia of Hefrumm. It is rather peremptorily written.

 

What are the degenerate arts you refer to the forest dwarves practicing? Are the degenerate arts in the room with us?

-Mirjana Blackroot