Dwarves

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Dwarves
Type	Species
Location	Canyon of the Lost and Molten Heights in Gavel Province
Information	An intelligent species that lives mostly underground. Settled the Molten Heights and Thanos.

Dwarves are an intelligent species that originates from the province of Gavel. It's unknown how long they have lived in Gavel, but they've been known to exist since at least 100 AP. They have decent magical potential, equal to that of humans, but inferior to that of the villagers, although it's often overlooked, since their culture focuses more on physical strength. However, they sometimes employ Dogun magic to create constructs such as the Rodoroc Power Core. Dwarves are peculiar for only building their cities underground, such as Rodoroc and Thanos. They are most known for their long conflict with the Doguns.

Dwarves are capable of living for around 250 years, making them the intelligent species with the third highest average life expectancy in Gavel, only beaten out by the Doguns which can live for thousands of years, and the Elves, the exact lifespan of which is unknown, but they are known to live for hundreds of years. They are also technologically advanced: their use of cannons in the final battle of the Dogun War in Courag marks them as the first known civilization to use cannons, in 300 AP.

The Dwarves, unlike the villagers, live under a monarchy, and have done so since the beginning of their civilization. However, the two main Dwarven settlements of Rodoroc and Thanos have different kings: King Draani VIII of Rodoroc and King Burtan of Thanos, implying that they're separate but still somewhat tied. Dwarves are known for honoring their greatest warriors and kings with grand statues and monuments.

In 573 AP, the Dwarves created a tunnel into the Sky Islands, meaning that airships were no longer needed to travel to the islands. Due to this, the Skyraiders, which prospered from air trade and from their dominion of the skies, started dwindling in power, eventually being overtaken by the Villagers.

History

Pre-Molten Heights Era

At first, the Dwarves did not inhabit the Molten Heights. It is unknown if they had major settlements outside Thanos, the oldest known Dwarven settlement, but they already had colonized some other areas. They wanted to spread into the Molten Heights for living space and valuable minerals, but faced a problem when doing so: the land was already taken by the native inhabitants, the Doguns.

What was known to little is that behind the scenes, the Dwarven kings had worked on a propaganda campaign to paint the Doguns in a bad light, referring to them as "demons" and calling them aggressors. This campaign was started by someone who would later become the first King of Rodoroc, Draani Thunderwill, at the beginning of the war and was codenamed "Operation Shadow". The operation worked, as the government got most of the Dwarven population to believe that the Doguns were demons and deserved to be vanquished.

Dwarven-Dogun war

And so, the infamous Dwarven-Dogun war began in 100 AP. It was a long-lasting war spanning over the duration of two whole centuries with many major events in it. The Dwarves were indeed powerful, but the Doguns weren't weak at all either; with their powerful magic, which they used to carve out the very caverns of the Heights the two species warred over now, they kept up a good resistance. In addition to this, the Dragons, powerful magical beasts came to the natives' help. The Dwarves counteracted, and crafted powerful dragon-slaying equipment in their forges, the most notable one being the now abandoned Thanos Armory.

During the earliest stages of the war, the full power of the Dragons could truly be seen. The Dwarves chained up an Ice Drake, and used it to attack a major Dogun settlement (which was also Korzim's hometown). The Doguns had to kill it, but with its dying breaths, it completely froze over a massive section of the Molten Heights, creating the Freezing Heights, destroying the Dogun city at the same time, and freezing many of the inhabitants where they stood. The Dwarves continued on to chain and/or slaugther all Dragons they could, and in the end, only one was left alive. Even to this day, the Molten Heights are littered with large skeletal bodies likely belonging to the dozens of slayed Dragons, including the skeleton of the Ice Drake.

Many Dwarven war heroes emerged during this battle, with the most known ones being the generals Algard and Osseus. Right from the beginning of the war, the Dwarves started hosting an annual celebration, the Dogun Festival, which consists in the entombing of a Dogun (a torture method where water is poured on a Dogun, turning them into solid stone like a statue).

As the war neared its end, and the Doguns' defeat seemed to be close, they resorted to one last option. They summoned Garaheth, a demon god capable of destroying the Heights, let alone the entirety of Gavel. In 300 AP, the final battle of the war began. General Algard and his army marched towards Courag, the Dogun capital, and laid siege to it with their cannons, while general Osseus faced off against Garaheth. At Courag, in response to the attack, the Doguns used their powerful magic to repel the Dwarves, but many of them would be defeated and entombed. As Algard's army and the Doguns were going back and forth with magic attacks and cannonfire, General Osseus and his had managed to defeat Garaheth. When Osseus returned to Courag and announced Garaheth's defeat, the Doguns agreed to surrender, on the condition that they would be never bothered again. However, Algard betrayed them and entombed all the surrendering Doguns, thus ending the war 200 years after it began.

Post-War Era

As a monument of victory, Algard and Osseus founded Rodoroc, the Dwarven capital. Both of them died soon after the war and were buried in a tomb at the Molten Heights Gate. The Thanos Armory was abandoned as it has no use anymore.

For centuries, the Dwarves sought out any surviving Doguns and entombed them at the yearly Dogun Festival, now held in the ruins of Courag, placing their (still alive) corpses along the road to the festival grounds. There are still dozens of known stone Doguns, petrified but alive, around the Heights. Some of them are even being sold in the Maex Black Market. The Dogun Chieftain, who had survived the war, retreated with a small group of Doguns to the Upper Molten Heights and created the Dogun's Retreat, hidden away from the Dwarves.

Current Time

Around 1000 AP, a group of Dwarves called the Resistance, which opposed the government's propaganda, was created by Axelus and Korzim. Axelus, who was the current King's son, tried to get his father, Draani VIII, to stop the entombing rituals and allow the Doguns to live in peace. However, the King, who was already preparing for another battle against the Doguns after discovering their settlement in the Upper Heights, refused. Meanwhile, the Dogun Chieftain, who saw that all hope for them was lost, summoned Garaheth once more to destroy the Dwarves. The demon was killed thanks to the player's efforts, but Axelus was killed by the Dogun Chieftain. At that point, the King told his soldiers to lay their arms down and he was able to negotiate with the Chieftain, thus finally putting an end to the conflict between the two species.

Notable Dwarves

• Draani Thunderwill - The First King of Rodoroc. He started the propaganda campaign against the Doguns known as "Operation Shadow" and was buried close to the Library of Flames.
• Draani VIII - The current king of Rodoroc and Axelus' father. He put an end to the conflict between Dwarves and Doguns in 1000 AP.
• Axelus - Prince of Rodoroc, he led the Resistance that supported the Doguns. He also appeared in From the Mountains when he tried to gather support for the Resistance in Bucie. Killed by the Dogun Chieftain after the Garaheth ritual was stopped by the player.
• Four Heroes of Rodoroc - Ockar of the Unseen Blade, Abduce the Barbarian, Delinaed the Wise and Kiriost of the Molten Arrow. They lived around the same time as Draani Thunderwill and are celebrated as heroes, although what they did is not fully known.
• General Algard - Considered one of Rodoroc's founders, he led the Dwarven armies to victory against the Doguns. He was in charge of the battle of Courag. Buried alongside General Osseus in the Tomb of the Founders outside of the gate to the Molten Heights.
• General Osseus - Considered one of Rodoroc's founders, he led the Dwarven armies to victory against the Doguns. He and his soldiers slayed Garaheth in 300 AP, leading the Doguns to surrender. Buried alongside General Algard in the Tomb of the Founders outside of the gate to the Molten Heights.
• King Burtan - The current king of Thanos. He asks the player to put a flower in Ozoth's belly in order to calm her down.
• Dolem - A poor dwarf who lives in Thanos. He's the starter NPC of The Thanos Vaults, where he asks the player to steal treasure from the vaults of Thanos so that he may be rich.

Major Dwarven settlements

Gavel Province

• Rodoroc - The Dwarven capital city, it sits in the middle of the Molten Heights and was founded around 300 AP after the Dwarven-Dogun War. It takes its power from the Rodoroc Power Core, fueled by Dogun magic. While it may seem grand and rich at first sight, the city also contains the Rodoroc Slum, where Rodoroc's most poor and forgotten live, hidden away from the public. The city also contains a prison, known for its fearsomeness.
• Thanos - Located at the start of the Canyon of the Lost and close to the Hive. It contains a marketplace and a huge vault. Next to it is Ozoth's Spire, on which lives Ozoth, a Dragon that frequently damages Thanos.
• Maex - A small town close to Rodoroc and the Freezing Heights. It contains the Maex Black Market, where many illegal things are sold, such as Dogun slaves and weapons. It also contains the Maex Mine, a resource mine that the player can access by paying emeralds.

Relations with other Species

• Doguns: The Dwarves and the Doguns fought a 200 year long war between 100 AP and 300 AP, which ended in a Dogun defeat. Many argue that it was a genocide rather than a war as most of the Dogun population was wiped out or entombed. The Doguns despise the Dwarves to the point where they'd summon Garaheth the demon to kill them off. The Dwarves also think of the Doguns as demons due to the propaganda spread by the Dwarven kings. In 1000 AP, however, the two species reconciled.
• Villagers: The Villagers and the Dwarves don't seem to have meaningful relations, however the Dwarves let Villagers trade in Rodoroc and they let the Juggler operate in Rodoroc as well.

Trivia

• Despite being called Dwarves, they don't seem to have any difference in stature compared to Humans or Villagers.
• Due to the Dogun War and their almost total wipe out by the Dwarves, the Canyon Colossus, which was regularly calmed by the Doguns before the war, is now threatening to destroy the Canyon as it is free to go haywire at any time.