Dwarves think of their canton first, their race or clan second. The canton is home and hearth, family and wealth, and safety from an uncaring world. These traits do not guarantee greater harmony or joy among cantonal dwarves than among other races. Indeed, cantonal dwarves are notoriously dour, fractious, and opinionated about everything. Cantonal dwarves unify only in the presence of some external threat, which gives their elders and the leaders of their Free Companies an excuse to go on about the importance of the Free Dwarven Cantons to the younger generation.
The Ironcrag cantons currently number 13, each defined by a settlement that has existed for at least 100 years, contains both free and cloistered dwarves, and encompasses a set of halls—not just mines and simple shelter. Proper halls include a set of forges or smelters, a brewery, a set of clan homes, and at least one temple or shrine. The total population of the cantons is difficult to
determine (dwarves are reticent to count their numbers, or at least to share those numbers with anyone outside their own canton). The best guesses say the cantons hold as many as 150,000 dwarves and perhaps 25,000 slaves outside Grisal—most of whom are human.
The 13 settled cantons are Bareicks, Bundhausen, Grisal, Gunnacks, Hammerfell, Juralt, Kubourg, Nordmansch, St. Mishau, Templeforge, Tijino, Vursalis, and Wintersheim.
Some of the cantons have three names: one in the Common Tongue, one in the Southern speech, one in the Dwarvish speech of the Northlands.