Khaz Dalarr

Khaz Dalarr, dwarven for the "Stout Tower Clan-Fort", is the clanhold capital for Clan Jarandsson of the Clans of Magnus. The large city is storied, and has a highly insular population, mostly of Dwarves (and mostly of its own clan). The founding story of the city is that it was established by Jarand Magnusson to close off the main traversable pass into the heart of the Southreach from the Lordless Lands, in the defense of a stable dwarven heartland in the Atlas Mountains. The city has a martial reputation and is known, like much the rest of the clan, for its warlike bent.

Geography

Khaz Dalarr actually holds an extensive surface fortification (from which it derives its name), consisting of a squat round tower which sits behind two concentric, semi-circular walls to its west, a short distance down the past. The walls defend the tower in like fashion to a Bastonian castle, and the tower further supports the walls while also serving as a primary gatehouse for the Clan-Fort, with scattered other surface gatehouses hidden further up the pass. The city is also unique in that it does not delve particularly deeply into the Deeps, and has only one gatehouse into the Roots of the Mountains, with a journey of at least a day from it to the nearest crossroads.

Beneath the Dalarr itself is the usual tiered structure of a stronghold, carved from bedrock and made deliberately difficult to navigate through in straight lines. The city itself is cramped, dark by the standards of surface-dwellers, and home to a great number of barracks, forges, and storerooms.

Economy

The valley behind Khaz Dalarr - to its immediate east - is rich and fertile. The dwarves of Clan Jarandsson farm it extensively for grain, honey, and livestock (especially beef or mutton). This makes the city somewhat less dependent on trade for foodstuffs than other clan-forts.

What Dalarr is heavily dependant in trade on is metals, especially steel, which is used to bolster the arsenals of the city. This trade comes largely from other Jarandsson holdings along the road though the Root of the Mountains.

Politics

Khaz Dalarr is the seat of power for Clan Jarandsson, respected throughout all the dwarven kingdoms for their martial prowess. It is just one of many fortifications that dot southreach and block access to its heart from the Lordless Lands or the Frontier Counties. A long grudge runs between the Orcish Nation and the Dwarves, due in large part to Clan Jarandsson's campaign to push the orcs out of the foothills of the mountains completely, ending at the Battle of Grahn Urgot. The city still considers itself at war with the Orcish Nation and mounts enormous drills to demonstrate its continued readiness to block its own pass.

Khaz Dalarr has sent a diplomatic mission to Whiterock to impress upon Bastonia the need for continued dwarven autonomy and respect by the humans of tradtional dwarven rights of way; a valid concern given the expansion of Bastonia into the Frontier Counties.