History of the Dwarven Race
by Giulio CarolettiDwarves of the First Age
According to the most ancient dwarven chronicles, Dwarves had developed a cultural identity at least around 4000 BC (1). At that time Dwarves were not so shy and reserved, nor were they so obsessed with chronicling, age-reckoning and with their genealogies.
This is a shame for dwarven historians. Anyway, Dwarves lived in a land that is believed to be the current Rockhome. Their main interests were agriculture and craftsmanship, but apparently they weren't a politically united nation, mostly a confederation. They hadn't developed their interest for mining and for the underground, either. Some dwarven colonies had got in touch with Humans from Blackmoor and Thonia, and with Elves. It is believed that Dwarves were much more open-minded and friendly and interested toward strangers than they are now.
Blackmoor became a huge Empire, and begun a meteoritic rise thanks to its incredible magic; this growth, however, got quickly out of control, and in 3000 BC the Blackmoorians magical arts resulted in a terrible catastrophe known as the Great Rain of Fire.
DM Notes:
(1) Håvard, "Legends of the Dwarven Race", says that the Dwarves remember having existed before 1800 BC. I thought that, given their accurate genealogies and their precision, they would surely remember of their past. I will define better why it is "common knowledge" in the Known World that they were created by Kagyar in 1800 BC. They don't remember much more than this, before 3000 BC. An accurate DM-perspective description of the Dwarven Principalities would have to wait the Blackmoor d20 supplements to be written, and could be based on parts of James Mishler's work.
It is to be noted that Dwarves believe their first and only territory has always been Rockhome.
Dwarves of the Second Age
At the time of the Rain of Fire, all dwarven colonies near Blackmoor were immediately destroyed.(1) According to the few remained chronicles, for years the dust clouds that were raised shaded the sun and made the temperature drop. The dust brought skin-affecting diseases and cancer, that fell upon the Dwarves and their neighbours. In order to flee from sure death, Dwarves begun to build homes underground, and thus developed their first skills in mining and underground engineering too.
In those years, Rockhome's climate was beginning to change toward ice-age: the mountains were always covered with ice and the dwarven agricultural skills were failing. Dwarves lost gradually contact with their neighbours, human and humanoid races became extinct, disappeared or fled from the Known World. Little use to the Dwarves were the friendship they matured with another race, the Gnomes, around 2900 BC. Gnomes are believed to be related to Dwarves, and moreover both races revered the Immortals Kagyar (whom the Gnomes also call Karl) and Garalin (whom Gnomes call Garl or Garal).
In the end, after wars for survival had wiped out all the last traces of culture, only Dwarves remained, in the regions near Rockhome, apart from the Gnomes, who were settled in the area now known as Northern Reaches.
The diseases continued to harass the dwarven race: even if the climate, around 2500 BC, had slowly begun to revert to normal, most children were stillborn, or bore deformities, and many Dwarves were born sterile. Around 2000 BC, only some ten-thousand Dwarves were present, and the race was facing the risk of total annihilation, of extinction. Most knowledge of their past had disappeared with their past greatness; in a desperate move to avoid ultimate oblivion, clinching to their art and their existence as the testimony of a race condemned to death, the Dwarves begun to compile extremely precise and definite genealogies of their families and clans, descriptions of their activities and history, while living their desperate lives. However, one of the six surviving Dwarven Clans, the Hrukats, got in touch with the Dark Elves.
The Dark Elves had been enemies of the Dwarves in the past. They were servitors of the Father of Demons, and lived north of Rockhome. The Hrukats Clan was in charge of the fortresses in the north that had been built to repel the Dark Elves in the past. The Hrukats were proud and noble, and had always defeated the enemies of the dwarven race, defending the other Clans from the threats in the north. After the defeat of the Dark Elves, the Hrukats had remained to guard the passes of the north, waiting for an enemy that for a long time didn't show again.
Four centuries after the last battle, the Dark Elves returned. After long years of decadence and desolation, the Hrukats had mostly forgotten about them and their adoration of the Father of Demons. So the Dark Elves pretended to offer a truce and an aid to the Hrukats. Although the Hrukats King expelled the Dark Elves, he secretly arranged to have some meetings to discuss the matter.
The Father of Demons was an obscure divinity. According to the ancient dwarven mythology, he had fathered some of the most foul of creatures: Garm, the Devourer of the Sun; the Midgardwurm, a monstrous demonic snake; and Fenris the Wolf. Later on, the Vikings would identify the Father of Demons with Loki, although currently the dwarven clerics suggest that the Father of Demons was none other than Orcus.
The Dark Elves told their necromantic arts to the Hrukats, promising the King that these arts would slow and prevent the decline of his people. The King and his counsellors and closer relatives became thus, secretly, powerful necromancers. In the beginning, they used their spells to halt and then erase the diseases from the population: but Evil always corrupts who uses its powers, and in the end the Hrukats leaders became tainted by Evil, isolating the Clan from their brethren in the south.
The dark arts tainted the heart and should of the dwarven necromancers, madness spread and the cult of the Father of Demons spread too, openly. Most of the population, having been denied any contact with the other Dwarves, forced to live always in the depths of the earth, ruled by necromancers, became apathetic and indifferent, while instigators at the service of the Dark Elves spoke against Kagyar and Garalin, and told the Dwarves that their patrons were to be blamed for their condition, as they had forgotten their race and left them to suffer in the claws of Evil. Around 1900 BC, the southern Dwarves begun to see clearly what was happening, and started to plan a way to expel all Hrukats from Rockhome (2). However, given the necromantic arts of their rulers, that had halted diseases and sterility, the Hrukats counted the same number as all the other clans together.(3) Called Morkwarf ("dark dwarves") by their own brethren, the most impious among the Hrukats rulers planned an attack against their own race, allied with the Dark Elves, with whom they forged five cursed weapons, each built appositely to be used against each remaining dwarven Clan.
A group of dissident Hrukats were able to discover the plot and managed to convince the other Dwarves that something dangerous was happening and that they had to move before the Morkwarf did. The Dwarves held a Council (1812 BC). Here they decided to attack immediately, before the Hrukats were ready, hoping in a spontaneous revolt among the Hrukats population. However, the intransigent nature of the dwarven race, and the malice spread by the followers of the Dark Elves (whose purpose was to destroy the whole dwarven race, like the Father of Demons wanted), had caused most of the population to actually hate and despise their southern cousins because they believed that they had been indifferent to their fate before, and now only desired to conquer and destroy them, blaming the whole Hrukats Clan for what was just the responsibility of their rulers (and of their gods, moreover).
The dwarven attack was extremely hard. The five Clans strangled the Hrukats in a long siege, that went on for six years. The Hrukats were suddenly abandoned by their allies, the Dark Elves, and the Morkwarf had to crush internal revolts in blood-bathes. In the end, the Dark Elves had nearly obtained their goal, as the dwarven population had nearly halved itself with the long and bloody, cruel, war, and the race was near extinction. Desperate, the Necromancer-King of the Hrukats surrendered (1806 BC). (4)
Hate between the two dwarven factions was at its peak. Both had suffered terrible hardships; the life of Dwarves in the last thousand years had just been suffering and desperation. Almost bursting in tears, the Morkwarf-King of the Hrukats, the son of the Dwarf who had allied himself with the Dark Elves, shouted his wrath against the southern Dwarves, that he considered simply put jealous of the achievements of his necromantic comrades: they had relieved the Hrukats from the curse and disease of Blackmoor, from sterility, and to do so they hadn't hesitated to use any means. Crippled, suffering and debilitated because of the dwarven race disease, the general of the dwarven army, Commander Tor, showed his plagues and his sore body to the bounded Morkwarf and proclaimed: "In no way shall the Dwarven race be consumed and tormented by the Disease of the Soul, even when this shall mean be consumed and tormented by the Disease of the Body! So, all Dwarves who stipulated the insane alliance with the Forces of Evil and the Dark Elves and the Father of Demons will not be Dwarves anymore! And their name will be removed from the Clans Chronicles. The Hrukats Clan is dead, it doesn't exist anymore. But you surrendered, so we will leave your people to leave our land. However, you and your batmen are sentenced to death, in the name of Kagyar and Garalin."
So the survivors of the Hrukats Clan left Rockhome and moved, in shame, east to the mountains at the border between Rockhome and the lands of the Gnomes.
The pride of the Dwarves of the five Clans moved the heart of Kagyar the Artisan, the Immortal who had always loved the Dwarves. Kagyar has never wanted to interfere with the lives of mortals: he is a respectful divinity, who wants to leave mortals free to choose and live their lives, according to their laws, and not as pawns of the Immortals. But in that time, the only time in the history of Mystara, Kagyar stepped in and acted, saving the Dwarves. In 1800 BC he sent them Denwarf, a Dwarf with great powers, that would guide them and save them from death. Denwarf was the First Cleric of the Dwarves. (5) He cured the Dwarves of their diseases and brought to them the secrets of the earth and fire that Kagyar and Garalin themselves had taught him. (6)
DM NOTES:
(1) At this time there were approximately 2 millions of Dwarves.
(2) This is, again, a false memory provided by Kagyar. The ancestral lands of the Dwarves were the Northern Reaches, and most Dwarves lived on the eastern side of the Rockhome/Vestland border mountains.
(3) At this time, there were about 30'000 Dwarves, 13'000 of which belonged to the Hrukats Clan.
(4) At this time, there were about 8'000 Dwarves, 3'000 of which belonged to the Hrukats Clan. In fact, not all Dwarves that "disappeared" had died in the war; a group of 4'000 southern Dwarves had been preserved in stasis by Kagyar and Garalin and put to sleep in the caves of Rockhome, while the two Immortals were discussing with Ka and the Hollow World Council how to move them to the Hollow World to become the Kogolor Dwarves.
(5) This could be a "false memory" of the Dwarves. Anyway, being Kagyar and Garalin so aloof and silent for so many years before, this could be a possibility to explain it. Kagyar was so "non-interfering" (à la Benekander) that he didn't even provide spells to his worshippers!
(6) At this point, there should be about 5'000 Dwarves. According to GAZ6, the original Dwarves were 500, but they are way too few, in my opinion, to rise in 400 years to the meteoritic number of 125'000 Dwarves...
Dwarves of the Third Age
It is said that Kagyar created Denwarf from a rock (1). Thus, the Dwarves thank Kagyar claiming that they were "born from rock, born by Kagyar, born to the world in those days of death and danger and silence" (2); thus, the Dwarves that were helped by Kagyar and Denwarf call themselves Denwarf, that means Rockborn.
Dwarves never speak about things that happened before the advent of Denwarf, and will never reveal this part of their history to any non-Dwarf (exceptions are extremely rare, and are only true and long-time friends of the dwarven race). This secret is so important that never did a Dwarf reveal it to anyone (not worthy); even the most impious and traitor among them will never ever even THINK about revealing it.
Denwarf was the first King of the Denwarf Dwarves, and ruled justly a long time, bringing the dwarven race to an age of peace and prosperity. An intransigent and harsh King, he was respected more than loved. He guided the Dwarves in a careful project of planned growth of the population and careful exploration of the mountains around their homes, that hadn't been in their control since a long time; they slowly expanded their colonies and opened new mines in the region, regaining control of their land, that with their decline had been occupied by barbaric tribes of goblinoids (3). The Dwarves soon learned to hate Orcs, Goblins and Kobolds, creatures that lacked any artistic sense and form of civilisation and culture; soon conflicts arose, and those conflicts saw the Dwarves victorious over their enemies, that were forced to leave the mountains. Last of those who were repelled were the Orcs: this marked the start of a hate that would never end.
When the Dwarves occupied the mountains and started to build new communities and colonies, Denwarf assured himself that he only could confirm the community leaders and town majors in their position, and ordered all communities to send him a representative. In this way he created the basis for the current government system of Rockhome, and of the Senate.
But even Dwarves grow old, and the Dwarf Master felt that his body was weakening after long years of peace and prosperity under his rule. He went into the forge, and made himself a new body of rock and steel, so that he could guide his people for coming centuries as well. But Kagyar spoke to him then and said: "Are you not happy with the body that I have given you? Seek you to improve on the work of your Master?" And Denwarf answered: "Forgive me lord, for it is not arrogance that has lead me to do this work. But is it not an apprentice's task to learn from his master?" Kagyar answered: "Very well. You will have this new-forged body, but for now you must leave, and allow younger Dwarves to rule themselves." Then the legends of the Dwarves say that Kagyar added: "I will let you return to the Dwarves when it is once again need for you among them." The Hurwarf Clan especially backs this legend, pretending it's true, while, hesitantly, some others (like the Everast) say "after all it's just a legend" (4).
Denwarf had discovered a great system of dungeons under Mount Everast. He gave the name of Dengar ("rockhome") to the caves and told his followers to build there their capital. Then he choose as heir a Dwarf of the Everast family, prophesised his return and left his kingdom for the dark caverns under Dengar (5).
The communities had changed from small families to big families, from villages to cities. In 1400 BC, the Dwarves had almost reached 125'000 units, and the race was healthy and safe from extinction. But their past history had changed their way of living dramatically: removed for centuries from all other sentient races (bar the Gnomes), having suffered any sort of hardship and desperation, the Dwarves had developed their taciturn and stubborn attitude. The fear for the fate of their race, threatened by the folly of Humans and Elves, and by the contact with violent and barbaric Orcs and Goblins, made them suspicious of all other races. It's also for this that the Dwarves write long and accurate genealogies, with whom any Denwarf can trace her roots back to the few survivors that had been visited by Denwarf and saved by the love of Kagyar and Garalin.
The dwarven legends say that "Denwarf had seven retainers; these became the Dwarven Lords, founders of the greater Clans" (6), but Denwarf Dwarves know that this isn't true (7). When Denwarf founded the new dwarven nation, he forged, with the help of some apprentices, the first three Forges of Power. These three he gave to the most important and influential families: the Everast and Torkrest that followed Denwarf to Dengar; and the Skarrad of Smaggeft. Most of the smaller families allied themselves to these three, effectively giving birth to the structure of the dwarven Clans as they are known today. The legend of the seven retainers is very popular, and is considered true outside of the Dwarves, among Humans and Elves, as an example. However, Dwarves are not so secretive about this legend, and the truth may be found studying the dwarven genealogies with the help of a friendly dwarven sage.
NOTES
...and they called themselves Modrigswerg
RISE OF THE MODRIGSWERG
Now, let's get back to the years following 1800 BC. While Denwarf rose to power in Dengar, the Hrukats had arrived to the dark mountains of the East (1), not far away from where the Gnomes lived. Here, the three remaining faction of Dwarves confronted each other; although their leaders had been removed (2), some Morkwarf, followers of the Father of Demons, were still present among them. Then there were two other factions, those that called themselves Dwerg (a pejorative of Dwarf that they chose in shame for what their Clan had done to their own brethren, as a sign of humility), that wanted to repent for their sins and return to the worship of Kagyar and Garalin, and the majority, formed by the Hrukats who just wanted to isolate themselves from the rest of the world and especially from their brothers in Dengar, and forget everything about gods or immortals or demons or whatever, beings that had only caused them problems and suffering.
The Dwerg were led by Arwarfin, a follower of Garalin. While the Hrukats fragmented themselves in many small family groups in the mountains, Arwarfin and his followers attacked the few remaining Morkwarf and were able to erase their presence from the surface. (3) This heroic and disinterested act were appreciated by Kagyar and Garalin, that begun to give clerical powers to particularly devoted and pious Dwerg too. As an act of gratitude, Arwarfin, the first Hrukats Cleric of Garalin, sought the weapons that the Necromancers had forged with the aid of the Dark Elves to help in the destruction of the dwarven race, and he found two, the Footspear of Brissard and the Shield of Ryleegh, that he hid in the deep of a Black Basalt Tower that he found thanks to a dream omen sent by Garalin himself. Later in his life, Arwarfin met with King Denwarf, and the chronicles of this event are in possession of the Clans Hurwarf and Everast. It wasn't a happy meeting. Denwarf was a hard and uncompromising ruler, and he refused to forgive even one single dwarf of the Hrukats Clan. Saddened, Arwarfin returned to his companions.
Following the desires of Arwarfin, the Dwerg separated in small groups to live among the other Hrukats. "It's no use to close ourselves in the towers of granite of our purity. Our brothers in the west have made this mistake, refusing to see the good in the heart of every Dwarf and refusing to admit that we repented for our sins. Now we must not make the same mistake and look with scorn and arrogance on our brothers in the Clan that have refused the words of Kagyar and Garalin, and have decided to seclude themselves from the world. We must live among them and remember them with our example that our past is great and our present may also be of greatness. We must reconcile the Dengar and the Hrukats, because only being one race and one blood we will be able to fight against our enemies. Everything went wrong the day the King of the Hrukats left our brothers to follow the delusion of the Father of Demons." It is said that when Arwarfin died, he and his closest followers were blessed by Garalin: their bodies were put to guard the weapons hidden in the Basalt Tower, to avoid forever the use of the weapons against a Dwarf.
Most of the Hrukats Dwarves ignored Awarfin's followers' preaching, and their ambitions (4). The Hrukats chose the new name of Modrigswerg (that is a pejorative of "dwarves who lost their way", more or less "mad dwarves"), demonstrating a heavy self-irony, and a bitter sarcasm against the hope of "rehabilitation" of the Dwerg, whom their name mocked. The Modrigswerg separated in many small groups hidden in the depths of the mountains (1800-1400 PC). Their philosophy of life became paranoid and pessimistic: forgotten by Kagyar and Garalin, aloof deities that had demonstrated to be uninterested in their fate in the hard days after the Rain of Fire, and cheated by the Father of Demons and the Dark Elves, they felt that their exile was an unjust punishment at the hands of their brothers that they had tried to help: what happened was just a mistake, and they couldn't be accused of it! They had been cheated, after all! So why respect and worship the Immortals, if the Immortals didn't care in the first place? And why ask their brethren for forgiveness? And why have any contact with other races at all?
The consequences of the necromantic arts that had cured the rotting plague aggravated their paranoia and depression: the Modrigswerg, due to the taint of the necromantic magic, now an inherent part of them, developed an inclination for madness and manic depressions even culminating in suicides, psychoses that are especially evident and frequent among the oldest members of the race. Neutral to most conflicts between the surface races, the Modrigswerg became soon even more greedy than their relatives of the west, agreeing to sell magical weapons and artifacts to anyone, if only paid a good price for it, generally uncaring of any moral and without asking what use would be made of the items they built.
Given the taciturn nature of all Dwarves, when the Northmen met with the Modrigswerg, they didn't even suspect that the two people were separated kinds; this, along with the Modrigswerg's isolationist and greedy attitude, has helped to spread the latent distrust the Northmen have for the dwarven race in general.
DM NOTES
(1) Like we said before: The truth is that the Denwarf dwarves were resettled in Rockhome, because the ancestral land of the Dwarves are the Northern Reaches. However, the Immortals Kagyar and Garal gave them false memories of having always lived in Rockhome.
(2) Garalin and Kagyar had removed all remaining dwarves from the Known World, transplanting half of them to the Hollow World, and reshaping the other half into a new dwarven race, which is planted in the Rockhome region. The new dwarves are given false memories and believe that the Modrigswerg also originally lived in the Rockhome lands. Garal and Kagyar decide to split among them the duties of caring for the dwarven races: Kogolor dwarves will be mainly followers of Garal, while the Rockhome ones will mainly follow Kagyar.
Kagyar and Garal also confront Loki, the actual Father of Demons behind the Dark Elves. Kagyar is especially furious and he basically bullies the Entropic Immortal to remove the leaders of the Morkwarf, otherwise he will have the new dwarves destroy them entirely. Kagyar is upset that the former Hrukats Clan gave up his worship, but he wants to give them the chance to return to him and doesn't think it's possible with their leaders actively worshipping Loki. The three Immortals come to an agreement: the wizard-priests of the Father of Demons will be removed from the Morkwarf and brought to the Hollow World, along with some of their apathetic followers; the rest will be slain by the allied Clans (see previous chapters) or by the followers of Awarfin (see later). They are placed far away from the dwarves of Kogolor, on the continent of Suridal.
(3) As this is the story from the dwarven perspective, it's no problem for a DM to decide that some Morkwarf escaped the wrath of the Dwerg and were able to build a hidden fortress somewhere.
(4) The remaining Hrukats remain untouched, apart from giving them false memories of having been exiled from Rockhome by the other dwarves, because of their leaders making an unholy alliance with the Dark Elves. They are supposedly left alone by the three Immortals, free to choose the path to pursue in their future. Kagyar's hope is that they will return to his worship (without any active encouragement) and repent their sins, otherwise he is willing to let them fall into decay and eventual slumber. However, Loki goes behind the others' backs, and plant ideas that convince the Hrukats that the Immortals don't really care for the fate of mortals. They come to believe that Kagyar and Garal have refused to involve themselves for centuries, allowing the dwarves to suffer and decline. The Immortals who do involve themselves only play with mortals for their own amusement, as they could see that the Father of Demons (in fact Loki himself!) did, by tricking them into madness and destruction. The Modrigswerg become frustrated and isolate themselves, both from outsiders and from each other. Although they are not really evil, they are prone to unpredictable psychotic episodes, which drive them further apart.
The Years of Growth
While the Dwerg tried to bring the Word of Kagyar and Garalin among the disillusioned Modrigswerg, the Denwarf dwarves begun slowly to expand eastwards. Ignoring the areas settled by the Modrigswerg, the Denwarf allied themselves with the Gnomes of the Northern Reaches, whose capital was Falun (in nowadays Soderfjord). The Dwarves hypnotise that Gnomes could be a subrace of Dwarves, while Gnomes claim that they evolved from a common ancestry. Whatever the truth, the two races had been allied since the first time they met, after the Great Rain of Fire, and when Dwarves and Gnomes met again, the alliance was reassured.
Meanwhile, the Dwarves met again with Humans after several centuries: beyond the mountains and hills lived the Antalians, ancestors of modern Northmen. The contacts were rather sparse to begin with, as the Dwarves had no interest in a race of barbaric pirates, busy only fighting among themselves. In the north, over the mountains, the Denwarf met the aggressive Ethengarans, discouraging the relationship of the Denwarf with their northern neighbours, given the superstitious and rather chaotic nature of this people.
The first Everast kings slowed considerably down the population's growth; intelligent and cunning planners, they knew the risks of an uncontrolled growth. They continued the tradition of exploration, fortification and mineral exploitation of the land, and of craftsmanship, that King Denwarf had promoted during all of his reign. The Everast dynasty, moreover, made an important decision that gained it the support of the population: the tradition of Abdication. Everast I (1400-1378 BC) believed that Denwarf had begun to show his weaknesses and limits with age: personal limits, sure, but also the limits that were peculiar of the Denwarf race, first of all a conservative attitude that could lead to intellectual and creative stagnation. To avoid this risk among the leaders, it was wise and right for a King to step down when he recognised that his time to rule the Dwarves was over.
In those years, the Syrklist of Dengar (a family belonging to the Skarrad Clan), stepped to the front of innovative mining techniques. The family had a so big following among its Clan, that it was able to form a new Clan. Clerics, artisans and smiths of the Skarrad Clan helped the Syrklist to create their own Forge of Power (1323 BC), a major event in the dwarven history, as it was the first time a Forge of Power had been created after the departure of King Denwarf. The Skarrad Clan split, with the technocratic families of engineers, architects, smiths, and those interested in the developing of metallurgic and building techniques mostly remaining in the original Skarrad Clan, while the miner families entered the new Syrklist Clan. Since then, the two Clans continue to be close allies and to share a common political view.
The tradition of abdication went on even after the end of the First Everast Dynasty, when Everast VI (1206-1161 BC), surprisingly, not only didn't choose his older son as heir, but even chose a Dwarf from another Clan, the Torkrest, that ascended to the throne maintaining his true name Thoric (1161-1119 BC). The unexpected decision created some tension between the Everast and Torkrest Clans, but no-one dared to oppose it. Thorin Son of Thoric chose a new name when he ascended to the throne, Blystar (1119-1062 BC), becoming the first of a long number of Torkrest kings to bear that name.
It was during the kingdom of Blystar I that a small number of ultraconservative traditionalist families, that opposed the political strategies of the Torkrest and the Everast, left these two Clans under the guide of the Lyrrast family of Dengar. They formed their own Clan, the Hurwarf, that was recognised by the other Clans when Kagyar showed his approval allowing them to build completely on their own a new Forge of Power (1089 BC).
After these events, the Heads of the Clans, the Clerics and the historians codified the requisites needed to be recognised as a Denwarf Clan: a group of Denwarf families will be considered Clan when it is in legitimate possession of a Forge of Power. The Forge may be built by the artisans, sages, priests and smiths of the Clan, with or without external help.
The chroniclers and miniaturists of the various Clans wrote a marvellous book that, since those days, should complement all the family genealogies with the list of all the true Denwarf Clans (1083 BC). The tome, known as "Book of Clans", reports since the List of Clans and the names of all the Families belonging to all Clans, comprehending the dates of transition of a Family from one Clan to another. More or less during the same years, the chroniclers and historians begun to catalogue and compile all the genealogies of all Dwarven families. It took them more than a century, but it brought to the completion of a precise Genealogy for each of the Clans.
(1) Denwarf in dwarvish means: born from (warf) rock (den).
(2) Translated from dwarven poetry: "dènwarf, k'àrwarf, gò'rwarf / ì karrdag à h'kardag à stildag".
(3) In fact, the ancestral home of the Dwarves were the Northern Reaches, but Kagyar gave them false memories of having always lived in Rockhome (Aaron Allston, "Hollow World Boxed Set").
(4) Håvard, "Legends of the Dwarves".
(5) Aaron Allston, "Dwarves of Rockhome".
(6) Håvard, "Legends of the Dwarves".
(7) The Buhrodar and Hurwarf Clans, at the very least, were created later in dwarven history. See Aaron Allston, "Dwarves of Rockhome".