When humans and elves first explored the lands that would become the Sovereignty, they found the hills and mountains were already claimed. With their genesis deep beneath the Echor Mountains, the folk known as dwarves had built great monuments to their skills under, in and on mountainslopes. To feed their people living under the mountains, holdings were established in hill and dale. When the settlers from the eastern lands first met the dwarves, the latter were masters of a cultured civilization, worshiping a single deity of flame and iron only known as "The Maker".
No sage knows who struck the first blow, but blood was spilled between elf and dwarf, laying the foundations for generations of fued and vendetta. It was this fued that was the first check on the advance of dwarf culture on Aedes. The elves waged war with blade and bow but, as masters of magic in those distant days, also weaved great spells to bring ruin to their fated enemies.
Plucking on the strands of fate, the elves ended the advanced skills of the dwarves and what once was a complex society rapidly devolved into savagery and tribalism. Once united under a High King, the dwarven clans of Isergard and other mountain holds now waged war on each other as well as the elves, penning grudges in blood and dealing death with fire and mithril.
This was the state in the Echors for long centuries before and after the Exodus. The absence of dwarven power allowed humanity to found the Sovereignty in lands that were once under dominance of Isergard. In the past century, the situation for dwarvenkind has worsened further, with monsters and darker things crawling up from the depths below the Echors.
Out of the Darkholds, goblins, trolls and fouler spawn of darkness emerged, laying waste to the deeper levels of the dwarven clanholds. The ancient capital and genesis of dwarvenkind, the vaults of Isergard, were completely overrun.
Now, there are three main sorts of dwarves dwelling in the lands of the Sovereignty:
Dwarves of the Holds
A few remaining mountain vaults still function according to ancient tradition, with a central Forge, warded over by a Royal Warden. These isolated and in all honesty declining societies dedicate themselves to maintaining the ways of old and rarely make contact with outside folk. As such, locations are not readily known and the finding of an ancient mountain vault is an occurence met with distrust by dwarves and excitement by exploring Sovereign humans.
Dwarves of the Boroughs
In the heaths and dales of Burgundy, the surface settlements of old whereby the dwarves of the Echors gained sustenance still remain. In these hills, dwindling dwarven communities live and trade and give birth and grow old. From time to time, a dwarf cuts the close-knit ties of his or her village and travels the breadth of Aedes, but mostly these folk keep to themselves.
Dwarves in Exile
These are wandereres, vagabonds, criminals, outcasts and adventurers. In the regimented life of a dwarf, those who seek excitement and fluidity outside their community are looked down upon, and dwarves who commit a grievous crime are punished with a fate worse than death: exile. These exiled dwarves end up in all manner of predicaments: fighting monsters across the Echors, in service to Sovereign nobles as mercenaries, or prying ancient ruins in search of treasure.
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