LG FEMALE DWARF ARISTOCRAT
Though our acquaintance with the high
king of Dongun is confined to letters,
it remains exceptionally memorable.
The king holds great wisdom beyond
her centuries, and she always finds an
answer for what troubles her people.
It seems that anyone speaking with
her will find exactly what they needed
in her eyes: compassion, friendship,
guidance, ruthlessness.
—High King Borogrim the Hale
The dwarven fortress city of Dongun Hold, a rare and fiercely guarded outpost of
civilization and safety in the magic-dead Mana Wastes, has been ruled for centuries
by the dwarven High King Anong Arunak. It was High King Arunak who met
personally with the eccentric exile Ancil Alkenstar (LN male human engineer),
who went on to found the nation that shares his name, and it was Arunak who
both directed the development of firearms in Dongun Hold and negotiated the
lucrative trade agreements that permit Alkenstar’s Gunworks to manufacture and
sell the dwarven inventions. Few people have been more instrumental in shaping
the recent history and current position of the Mana Wastes than the High King of
Dongun Hold, and yet very little is known about her.
Anong Arunak began her life far underground in a cavern in the Darklands, where
the dwarves of Dongun Hold had retreated to escape the unending war between the
wizards Nex and Geb. Born to the royal house and trained since birth to rule her
people, she complemented that education with her own studies to become one of
the most far-sighted leaders of her generation. When Ancil Alkenstar discovered the
dwarves and the gunpowder weapons that they had perfected, Anong accepted an
audience with the refugee, listening to his news of an end to the war between the
wizards and a refuge for exiles located in the Mana Wastes.
Recognizing the unique opportunity presented by Alkenstar and his encampment,
High King Arunak led her people back to the surface to retake their ancestral
Sky Citadel, invested heavily in the nascent technology of firearms to protect her
people from the lethal beasts of the Mana Wastes, and then further capitalized on
that investment by licensing the technology to Alkenstar’s Gunworks. However,
she also understood the threat that such weapons could pose in unworthy hands
and has firmly restricted the number that become available for outside trade,
though production limits have been increased in recent years. Similarly,
High King Arunak pushed aside the hold’s entrenched xenophobia to aid
and protect Alkenstar’s early settlers, ensuring that the nation would
become a strong ally for Dongun Hold.
High King Arunak was even willing to open negotiations with
the magic-infused nation of Nex, whose arcane wars with Geb
devastated Dongun Hold in an earlier age. Although the Nex-Geb
war caused immense suffering in Dongun
Hold as the fortress city was conquered
and re-conquered by each side, High King
Arunak overruled her isolationist advisors
and chose to open trade lines with a nation that her
people had mistrusted for centuries.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
The high king’s decisions have led Dongun Hold to
unprecedented prosperity, but her rulings haven’t gone
unchallenged. Centuries of seclusion have left many
Dongun dwarves with a profound mistrust of others,
and though more than a century of alliance with
Alkenstar has softened this view, extremists remain
common. Each of Anong Arunak’s policies has invited its
own set of enemies. The Keepers of the Skyflame, a cohort
of traditionalist dwarves originally founded to maintain
Dongun Hold’s cultural links to its fellow Sky Citadels, opposed
the development of firearms as an unnecessary and dangerous innovation.
The Skyflame also opposed letting any of that technology slip into human hands and they were infuriated by the idea of opening trade links with Nex and
Alkenstar. The Goldhand Lodge, another frequent opponent of the king’s, is a
mercantile association that wants to raise the Gunworks’ production quota so that
they can increase their profits. Goldhand agents regularly try to evade the king’s
restrictions; several of them have been arrested for smuggling firearms and other
contraband out of Dongun Hold. High King Arunak has recently received envoys
from Hashim ibn Sayyid, the enigmatic Pactbroker of Katapesh, who wishes to open
trade negotiations—the Goldhand Lodge is now pressuring the king to embrace the
Pactbroker’s offer immediately, and the suggestion has predictably infuriated the
Keepers of the Skyflame. For now, the king is trying to chart a middle course.
Another budding problem is the upwelling of popular anxiety about the
rumored return of the archwizard Nex. The mighty fleshforges of Ecanus have
suddenly begun to churn uncontrolled horrors into the Mana Wastes, putting both
Alkenstar and Dongun Hold in peril. The possibility of Nex’s return, and the
reignition of his country’s long war with Geb, has inflamed deep-rooted fears
in Dongun Hold. Pressure has fallen on High King Arunak to re-open the old
underground quarters, reinforce the old protections, and ensure that they are
ready to receive the city’s population if the worst should come. After centuries
of disuse, some of these tunnels have fallen into dangerous disrepair, and others
have become infested with monsters. Clearing and restoring them is an expensive,
hazardous endeavor.
Despite these challenges, High King Arunak remains broadly popular with
her people, for she has greatly elevated Dongun Hold’s power and prosperity.
In Alkenstar, which would not exist as a nation without her help, the king is
considered nearly a saint, and the companies of dwarven sharpshooters that
Dongun Hold sends to help defend Alkenstar from marauding monsters are
widely celebrated as heroes. Of course, the king’s support is not entirely altruistic:
these sharpshooters also protect Dongun Hold by ensuring that Alkenstar is the
first line of defense and bears the cost of maintaining the most sorely tested
fortifications. Nevertheless, the dwarven companies are an integral part of
the alliance’s shared defenses, and wanderers from the Mana Wastes who
wish to earn citizenship in Dongun Hold often volunteer to serve with one
of the companies as a starting point.
High King Arunak also maintains cordial relations with the dwarves
of the Five Kings Mountains, and she carries on a personal
correspondence with the noted physician Kassi Aziril,
whose achievements in non-magical healing are of
considerable interest to the peoples of the Mana
Wastes. Unknown to any of the other dwarves in
Dongun Hold, the high king has also sent her most
skilled and trusted envoy to seek a safe means
to contact Overlord Ardax the White-Hair of
Urgir—as Anong Arunak holds a letter with an
apology so heretical to the dwarves that its
delivery could dethrone her.
POLITICAL LIABILITIES
With each year, as the Skyflame
dwarves lose more ground in the
ideological war, their tactics become
more extreme. Rumors link the
Skyflame to several acts of sabotage,
both of the firearms themselves and
of trade negotiations, and whispers
persist that they have even more
violent actions planned: assassinations
of diplomats, staged attacks they
can blame on outsiders, and worse.
The high king’s agents are looking for
proof that might link the Keepers of
the Skyflame to these acts and thus
potentially bring down the venerable
organization, though they fear the
uproar that might follow if they find it.