Backstory: Beleg, House Marblefist, Dun Dynkyr

The peninsula of Dynkyr, land of the dispossessed Sundered Dwarves is prone to bitter in-fighting and viscious back-biting over genealogies and the precedences of succession. These struggles go back two thousand years to the untimely and heirless death of Regn Banalar. While the nobility argue and scheme and plot, most of them act like they have given up for lost, the cause which should be foremost in their minds. It is a cause which still manages to capture the imaginations of patriots. That is, the Dun.

King of Dynkyr? Are we humans that we have Kings? We are Stoneborn! Our Regn will be clear to us when he sits in the seat of his Dun. The Dun is the heart and home of all properly called Stoneborn. The Dun should be the foundation of life for the Stoneborn. The Dun is the source and the summit of our achievement, the foundation and pinnacle of our civilization.

-From a speech by the outlaw firebrand curate Kerak Dwennir, 5820ey

The eventual Restoration is foremost in the mind of King Dalen. Rest assured, that both he and his Courtiers are in constant talks with the Horde about halting new settlements in Bofain and the old Kerags. Yes, we need to restore our ancient Holy Places as viable sites of historic interest. But these things take time and cooler heads must be allowed to prevail. Go back to your homes. We cannot risk the sacking of our great cities. You older, wiser heads must see to the intemperate youth among you, for they risk all we have striven to keep. Traditions are nothing if there are no people to practice them. What good is a museum if there is no one to visit it?

-Lord Bridig, Chancellor of Justice to King Dalen Ingothammer, 5823ey

Of the Great Houses of the Dwarves, the House of Marblefist served as Chief Heralds to the Regn and as Magnates for twenty-two generations. Loyal, honorable, respected, and unpretentious, the Marblefist motto was “Service is the highest calling.”

-A History of the Stoneborn Manses, by Rollo Redgranite, 3740ey.  

The Ruling House of Ironbar was ever corrupt, oppressive, and treasonous in their level of dereliction. All who served them, including Marblefist, were as drones feeding a bloated and indolent maggot queen.

-Lord Brand Brassanvil, Official historian to King Dalen Ingothammer, 5783ey.

What a difference a few years make in the fortunes of a noble house. House Marblefist was, for generations, the House of the Herald to the Regns of Dynkyr, as such things were still styled then. It was they who had been Magnates of the Regn from even before the Sundering. And yet, all came to ruin as the goblins sacked the capital City of Bofain.

All the way back to the glory days of Dun Dynkyr, House Marblefist was famed not only as the King's diplomats, but also as stonecutters and engineers. However, the first time Beleg heard the ringing of hammer on anvil and saw a smith quenching a red-hot blade, his people had already been Sundered for five lifetimes.

Beleg was born in the year 5740ey in the Dwarven city of Bofain. When he was old enough to begin a trade, his father sent him to House Stoneaxe, a longtime friend of Marblefist. Beleg thrived there, learning how to turn iron into steel, and how to shape it according to his will. He proved an apt pupil at both smithing and at arms. Those were halcyon days for Beleg, as he spent his days hammering steel and learning the axe, and his nights with his family and friends, and he had no greater ambitions than to perfect his craftsmanship and someday carry the king's banner as his father had done.

Then, everything came to ruin.

The goblins raided Bofain in 5753ey with such surprise and in such numbers that the Dwarves had little time to react. The raiders were swift and merciless and in the cities on the plains, the people had long neglected their defenses. Many had come to think of the mountains of Rakag as their best defense, when their greatest threats were still what lived beneath. The goblin invaders came from the Rakag itself where they have festered in the ancient Dun lost since the Sundering.

It was only after the city was burning that the Dwarves regrouped on the plains east and south of their beloved Bofain. Beleg had not taken part in the fighting. He was too young, his father had decided, and was trundled off with the other young.

Despair set in among the dwarves, who migrated South to Dor Inur where the King of Dynkyr set up a court in exile and attempted to make the best of the catastrophe and recover from the shock of their loss. It was then that a rival house, long ambitious and jealous of the ruling King, sowed discontent and the seeds of rebellion. Daen Ingothammer denounced the King in front of the Magnates Council. Chaos erupted and a melee broke out. Axes and hammers were drawn, and within minutes, several nobles were wounded and King Tureg Ironbar lay dead. The land now boasted two king claimants.

By the year’s end, the old king and his allies were scattered and living where they could. Like the rest of his family, Beleg joined the exiled king in Kerak Kyr, where he continued to study both smithing and axe-craft. The king-in-exile ruled only a small fraction of Dun Dynkyr, but all was not forlorn and hopeless. His house was once, by far, the largest of the Great Houses, and had taken much of his arms, armor, wealth, and industry with him, including the whole of the Ancient Tomes of Dynkyr and the complete histories of the Stoneborn People. Being on an island also added a great deal of security, as most Dwarves are incompatible with the sea and ships.

The new usurper king on the mainland had the recognition of foreign nations. He gave cities and old outpost forts to his supporters and settled himself in the city of Dor-Inur where he established a policy of malevolent neutrality against the “rebel” house of Ironbar and began preparing for invasion. This martial spirit was interupted by his sudden infirmity in 5822ey. Now his son Dalen, young and charismatic, sits upon his father's throne and makes overtures of reconciliation to exile and goblin alike.

For Kings Ingothammer in Dor Inor and the mainland:
House Anvilsring
House Brightforge
House Silverspur

Professing nuetrality:
House Bronzebell
House Slateshield

For Kings Ironbar from the island of Kerak Kyr:
House Agatestar
House Stoneaxe
House Marblefist

While living on the island of Kerak Kyr, Beleg nursed a burning desire to see the usurpers punished and the proper monarchy restored. He spent many of his tween years traveling the peninsula and speaking loudly on the subject to all who might listen. Though not yet a warrior of renown or an elegant speaker, his words had force and passion behind them when he spoke on the subject, and gradually he began to influence some of the younger, hotheaded dwarves who wanted, right now, to march against the king in Dor-Inur. 

His plan was to sneak into the city, assassinate the King Daen and his son Dalen, and then burn the city to the ground while killing as much of the usurpers' royal court as possible. So popular among the young men did Beleg become that even his father consented to the idea of “sending Beleg away” for a few years to cool off.

“Why must I go?” He had asked his father.

“Because things are unstable enough without you pushing rocks down the cliff.” Was his father’s reply.

“When can I return?” Beleg asked.

“When you have matured. I will know when and I hope you will, as well. Now go.” Those were the final things his father had said to him in person.

In 5820ey Beleg was sent by disguise to Dordyn to catch a ship bound for the human land of Bolden, where he would be the only dwarf within several leagues. The night before he was to leave, while enjoying the last of any proper beer he would taste for some time, he had chance to hear the fiery speech of a dwarven priest calling himself, Kerak Dwennir or "Fortress of the Stoneborn." The priest spoke to the young men assembled about the need for restoration of the Dun of their fathers and this idea awakened something in Beleg.

Beleg's father and the other nobles were five generations removed from the Dun. To them it had always been a dusty old hall guarding tapped out mines, or else a rainwater flooded ruin of primitive times. But, to the firebrand preacher and the enrapt youth of his audience in this roadside brewery, it was something much greater, it was the true home of his people, 2,000 years defiled by the presence of goblins. In this firebrand's speech there was a call to something greater than the mere restoration of a king to a throne in a city. There was a call to days when Dwarves lived below ground and were rulers and heroes of old, and when they commanded the respect of men and elves alike. "Find yourself a proper Dun," the priest challenged the young men, "Go to the West and North, see the Halls of our cousins in Festog and Oromir and Balnolmor. These are not cities of wood such as you have around you, these are halls ringing with craftsmanship and flooded with silver and gold."

With these strange words ringing in his ears and these thoughts rolling around in his head, Beleg set sail for Bolden. He found that acceptance among the humans was grudging, and only came because Beleg was such a skilled weaponsmith and ironworker. Still, the lack of any social life for a solitary dwarf had its benefits: his skills with hammer and anvil grew quickly and he practiced the use of his axe whenever a stout mercenary was needed.

But he still seethed with a scalding desire to see the rightful King of Dynkyr restored, to see the usurper put down and the Ironbar's once again ascendant. It was an all-consuming passion for him, yet he has slowly learned to see some of the wisdom in his father’s notion of maturity, preparation, and patience. But the words of the priest haunted him, too. When he had filled his purse with the mercenary's wage he wrote an ill-advised letter to his father asking about the other Duns. His father gave him a letter of introduction to the other Heralds he had known.

So Beleg spent the last three years emptying his mercenary's purse of its profits. He journeyed first to Dun Oromir where the wonders of that place awed him. Here was no dusty hole. Here was no dampened pit. His journey to Dun Festog, last outpost of the demi-human realms before the Goblin Kingdoms revealed a place similarly arrayed in finery and wonder. But for all his entreaties the Regns would not be bothered by the plight of the plains dwellers -- their thinly disguised pejorative for Dynkyr. Last, he journeyed far to the North to Dun Balnolmor and the richest of the Regns. There he at last found a sympathetic ear, who was impressed with the lad's fire and his skill at arms. The Regn pledged to Beleg one more company than any other regent might give him, but only for the restoration of the Dun and not for the cause of any one House alone.

The last thing the Regn in Balnolmor advised him was there were other Duns besides those in Westrun. There were those in Eastrun and Southrun and perhaps some in places unknown. In Dun Usega of Eastrun, he might find sympathy with Regn Thorgren of the Deep Dwarves plus knowledge of the so-called lost Duns.

In Dun Darlurdig of Southrun, Regn Urtal is supposed to have been consumed by evil, but Dun Duergara under Regn Druna is believed by letters and dispatches to be the son of virtuous sires.

Then there were the so-called lost Duns of Nolinnug and Durauthalar and Ur, who have long fallen out of contact with their cousins in Westrun. Find these, he intoned and you may find support.