Your followers find their way, by ancient roads and forgotten paths, through hidden mountain passes, to the ruins of a once great Dwarf Fortress. In the distance, the ragged ruins blend in to the mountainside, their stone the same grey as the cliffs around them, moss and bushes and trees clinging to the broken walls just as to the mountainsides. But as your people move closer, uneven walls, pillars, even gateways and, in places, stone roofs become visible.I keep finding more and more references to ancient roads and/or paths. There is even a tavern quest about putting up marker posts along the road to help travellers find their way (King's Road).
Even in ruins, the structures here are immense. Walls that now stand a hundred paces high are but the remains of greater edifices, rubble strewn about them suggesting that some towers must have been many times as high as that.
A faction hub has walls a hundred paces thick, and there are others that have similar type building descriptions ... factions in the north, like Dragnu Mundas and Tantarkim come to mind, but there might be others I can't recall. I'll do a search of the full text though.
The remains of a royal hall cover an area big enough to contain a whole village. In the ruins of crumbled townhouses are the Clan crests of dozens of proud families, some familiar (Moedagh, Reashag, Bealagh), others long forgotten by all but the Dwarves. Collapsed tunnels and gates sealed with rubble hint at networks of passages beneath the mountains, now inaccessible.
I haven't been able to figure out the other clans, and can't remember how many there were. 12 maybe, but can look that up also. Still don't have any idea who they are. One guess might be Clan Dollagh or The Lost Clans (that seems way to obvious, right?). The tunnels that I'm looking for HINT at more! Yes, this is why I believe we have to find the tunnels and the mine. This is just 1 place, but it is also the strongest clue.
In ruined shrines, tablets still stand attesting to the glory of this fallen city.
Ruined shrines and ruined ancient temples are all over Illy. I have a long list of excellent quotes ... we need more to narrow it down and find the one that has a connection to the Dwarves.
In a tavern quest, it says that directions were carved onto the face of a tablet ... I believe it's in one version of the King's Road tavern quest. Sounds like a promising clues to me. Might not be a clue to DK, but I'll take a clue to something else too lol.
A plaque in the overgrown marketplace attests to once vibrant commerce: "Give thanks to the east, for Obsidian and fine silks. Give thanks to the west for grain and meat. Give thanks to the north, for Iceheart and oak. Give thanks to the south for spices and fish. All the goods of the world are brought here, by the skill of the Dwarven Clans in obedience to the Artefores."
Great quote. One of the most well-known and it's been picked at. Mostly people focus on the items, like iceheart and ancient oak, fish and spice, but no one is quite sure what to do with all of it.
I think the focus is the last part of the last line. The dwarves were great because of their obedience to the Artefores, however they drifted away from the Artefores and they weren't supposed to do that. The failure of the Dwarves to remain obedient ot the Artefores is what caused the fall of their once great kingdom.
The Great Clans that used to be *cannot* reclaim the glory that they once were ... not without their gods who gave them all of the gifts that enabled them to be as great as they were. And they do want to reclaim their former glory ... sounds like a great quest ...
Another tablet recounts the names of craftsmen who were presented to the gods each year as the finest jewelers, cabinet makers, glass-blowers, armourers, potters…. But their works have long since vanished.
Another instance of stressing the value and importance of craftsman and craftsmanship to their culture, social structure, economic structure and spirtual beliefs. The gods are the Artefores who gave them the gifts to be excellent craftsman.
Close to the royal palace, the wall of another shrine reads: "For the glory and might of Duraz Karag, we thank the Artifores. We give thanks that they made our crafts people deft and hard working. We give thanks that they made our kings wise. We give thanks that they made our mountain ranges rich with iron and Silversteel. We give thanks that our warriors are strong, our children healthy, our women enduring, our families dutiful. Upon these things does Duraz Karag stand. May it last for ever."
Yes, may it last forever. That is the ultmate goal of the Dwarves. They are proud of their heritage and some can claim a lineage back to the First Dwarf. They also claim that the Dwarves have been around for 2000 years, and plan to be here for another 2000. They built fortresses that have endured. There is one that fell completely to the greenskins - Great Mountain Home of the Parvacones faction. Caer Arodd used to be the name and it was a Dwarven citadel / fortress. It did not endure, so I'd start there. There is a suspicion that Treggar of Treggar's Crows committed treason and sold out the other Dwarves to the greenskins, and he may have been the one to tell them how to get in through the tunnels. Or he was framed ...
But they kind of screwed up by not following the Artefores as they were supposed to do. It did not last forever, so that's a problem. You don't get gifts from the Gods, take the gifts to become the greatest kingdom, and then ditch the Gods like you don't need them anymore. Guess what happens? DK went down. Duh.
Ok, so they want to be great once again and reclaim their glory. This is a recurring theme throught the lore. Everywehre I look, there is something about the dwarves and how they messed up big time. They don't know how or are not able to fix their mess, so we probably have to help them ... in some way ...
Leaving the city to return home, your people note a few small scattered cairns, little piles of mossy stones, also brought low by time. These, they suspect, may be crude monuments to slain Orc warleaders, whose hordes over-ran the vast city in the Second Age.
Oh wow! That little line I've seen before, but have forgotten about. Must not have rang any bells for me the first time I read it.
The other huge problem the Dwarves of DK had was the invasion of the greenskins. They are still having this problem. What they want most of all is 1) to reclaim their ancient homeland from the greenskins and 2) to regain the favor of the Artefores.
I will come up with a list of possible culprits. The tavern quests have some orc warlords, battles, funerals, and the shame of defeat. A lot of weapons traded hands too along the way.
Another thing about this line is that it might not even be the greenskins. This is a general explanation for the stones, but the Elves have a different version. They say the Giants threw boulders at the traders as they travelled along the road (a trade route, a relic of the Second Age). Well, the Elves are notroious for their superfluous use of poetry, and the Dwarves criticise their ability to tell the facts. The Elves also placed more emphasis on the moral of their stories, and for this story, the moral is that wit can win over brute strength.
Your followers regret that they did not return with any treasure or insight. The ruins of Duraz Karag are so vast, they say, that it must contain some secrets, but they had no clue where they might even start such a search.
They didn't return with treasure or insight, so it must still be there ...
'so vast' ... it is rumored that they had a network of tunnels back in the day. This network of tunnels went through a mineral deposit of each mineral (Wedding Breakfast tavern quest). It was that extensive.
Hmm, no clue where to start searching a vast network of tunnels ... ??? ... how about a map? In Shaft 54B, in order to find the tunnel that had the treasure they really wanted (got beer the 1st time, but suspected there was more and they wanted more), they found the map office, and that led them to the armoury.
There are other references to maps ... 1 that I know very well is mentioned in the Fyrgis faction that on old maps of the area, it used to be wooded grassland, not a great cursed swamp. Old maps exist. I would look in a library ...
Libraries are another major theme throughout the lore. There was also a side in The Herald about discoveing the library of Qingdao. This is the entire thing -
A fascinating http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#x_x_x_x_/Alliance/Faction/56" rel="nofollow - has been published in Pellimont, shedding light on both the city of http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#x_x_x_x_/World/Map/936/369" rel="nofollow - and the Wen Kun Dynasty itself.
It is hoped that Lady Isabella's entire diary may some day be published.
No one has ever found the library or the entire diary of Lady Isabella. There is a particular set of diaries that was of interest to the wizards in a the tavern quest The Golden Apple Tree (part 2/3), and it could have been hers. Must be important to find if there was a side in The Herald about it, and a hope for something to happen sounds like a task.
I am still sorting through the tavern quest texts, but am finding some very subtle and not so subtle clues and pieces of missing information. The puzzle pieces are still scattered though and it's a slow process figuring out which parts go together.
I firmly believe that the tavern quest texts contain valuable clues and hints that will help us find *something* ... I am amazed at the information they contain, and can't wait to share more of what I have found. Am just too overwhelmed atm ...