Five hundred years ago, one of the most numerous and powerful dwarven clans, called Svartdverg, fell under the influence of a sinister deity. Delving for secrets in the depths below their main clan settlement, they discovered a large and mysterious cavern, which lay enveloped within the surrounding rock. The walls of this cavern were rich with signs that indicated raudstaal veins, and a blood-red, shrine-like rock formation stood in its centre.

Unknowingly, the dwarves had stumbled upon the prison-home of a god called Heimar, who was entombed within the cave during the Usurper Wars. He immediately took control of the minds of the Svartdverg miners, and sent them back to their dwellings to spread the contagion of his worship. Then he bid the clan subjugate the rest of Dvergheim in his name.

The long and bloody civil war which followed ended in the ultimate defeat of the Svartdverg clan and their allies, who were driven into exile. Despite the determined efforts of their mightiest magesmiths, however, the dwarves could not destroy Heimar’s shrine-prison. All entrances to the cave in which it stands were collapsed, and today its location is a closely guarded secret.

Approximately half of the surviving svartdvergir, as they were eventually known, sought to build a new life for themselves in what today is northern Morak. The remainder fled through the underground in small groups, most of them settling in remote regions that were beyond the reach of Dvergheim’s armies.

Barin's plan
The culture of Dvergheim has long been self-absorbed and isolationist, but this may now be changing. The present king, Barin Grayfell, is pressing iron-hard for an ever more efficient and profitable Dvergheim, and he sees integration into surface life as necessary for growth. To point the way forward, King Barin has partially abandoned the subterranean stronghold of his ancestors, in favour of a simpler castle on the surface. His reign has already seen a noticeable growth in surface activity.

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