History - Reetersbeard

The Third major clan of dwarves in this area is the Reetersbeard dwarves and a few of the party members have either ancestry or dealing with them. So their history, as known follows:

There is no single defined dwarven homeland, they have been around as far back as the gods have been, building the worlds and universes as required by Reorx, Moradin, Vulcan, Dunatis, or any of the other gods needed. By dint, although dwarves are clannish in nature they are not overtly so and don't assume that their clan or holdfast is the end all/be all.

The Reetersbeard Dwarves story is the tale of a homestead of dwarves who made the decision to move their entire civilization. Twice.

According to what few relics and tablets remain, the Reetersbeard dwarves were part of a larger collective called the Morati. Some 6 or so ages ago (again - VERY long time - almost 2,000 years) the collective split into two main family camps - The Giant Born (Jarlborrin) and the Right Beard (Reetersbeard). The Right Beard camp was growing ill with the constant barbaric attacks by roving tribes of orcs and humans, not wanting to be a part of the assault and "culling" of these surface dwelling raiders and pests - while the Giant Born camp was convinced that it was a noble effort to cull the barbaric tribes before they got too large and caused either starvation or warfare between them.

So 30,000 dwarves and their attendant gnomes, humans, and other followers dismantled their homes, forges, anvils, halls, and other items of value and decided to head east through the great forests and find the end of the world.

They came upon the Mastelic Ocean after many months of travel and then continued their travels south. For the better part of a year the dwarven nation made their way south until they came upon an area with many large hills and small mountains, as well as a single oversized defined peak that was so tall, it pierced the sky. The land was home to a number of elves who had not participated in the Kinslayer Wars and had no trouble or problems with the dwarven nation.

The Reetersbeard Dwarves settled the area and dug mines and homes into the earth. And things were well for a very long time. They multiplied, moved, and spread their teachings and children further south to the human lands and kingdoms in that direction. Eventually the human kingdoms expanded northward and in honor of the friendly dwarves they encountered there, offered them a space in the council of Lords and eventually folded them into the Kingdom of Daro - the High Thane also given the title of Duke and the land was referred to as the Duchy of Reet.

For the better part of 1500 years the Reetersbeard Dwarves lived and had their homes, their nation swelling to 45,000 dwarves and countless other friendly races. They had their lives here until their seers and rangers came back with disturbing news. The lands to the west were wild with many roving tribes of monstrous humanoids - that wasn't an issue. What was the issue was that the lands WEST of that were a blasted wasteland with little life still there - and the darkness was going to spread east.

The darkness of dragons.

The largest clutching of dragons had lived and grown unchecked for centuries and were approaching the stage when they would fight amongst themselves for dominance - sending the weaker dragons to go off and find new territory.

And the only territory was to the east and eventually the Duchy of Reet. Every skein, every runecasting, every divination the dwarves made said this was going to happen. Not now, not next year, maybe not even next decade - but it was going to happen and when hundreds and hundreds and maybe thousands of dragons take wing and spread - nothing on this earth was going to be able to withstand it.

The dwarves thought about it long and for 15 years sent runners and rangers as far as they could to confirm this - and it was going to be the case. Between the land of the dragons and Reet were the Homelands-  where ogres and bugbears and kobolds and other monsters held sway - hundreds of thousands of them - maybe even millions. When the dragons came - they would drive this horde before them and they would hit here first - and then the dragons would follow.

They Referred to this as the Odinstorm, the Murder of Ravens, The Flight. They tried to share this information with the human kingdoms to the south who were embroiled in civil war and didn't listen. They tried to share it with the surface dwelling elves and humans and halflings and whatnot who made up the Duchy of Reet and it was taken seriously. But not everyone wanted to leave - would it be this year, next, the following? A decade or two?

Where would they go??? Many dwarves thought they could stay here, pull the entrances to their mountains closed behind them, and weather the Odinstorm as long as possible - the thought of moving was just not in their bones.

Of those that agreed to leave, some 20,000 a bit less than half, the Reetersbeard clan decided they would again split into two - half would return back to the north and the Jarlborrin Lands, the rest would travel south as far as they could and try to find another place to settle down and live.

So almost 180 years ago almost 10,000 dwarves and another 12,000 other races once again performed their mass migration and traveled the ancient markings and maps north along the Mastelic Ocean and then eventually west - taking almost 2 years to make the journey.

But when they came "home" after some 1,500 years - things were different. The gnomes had a homeland to the east now called Nightwoods, the Jarlborrin had grown and expanded taking over many mountains to the west with the capital of their Thanedom being called Sorton, a group of Mountain Dwarves had emerged from their caves called Gorok - but the majority of the land was dominated by a sprawling orcish empire called Rand.

They were welcomed but the Randari Ympyr didn't want them en masse in their cities and asked the clan to break up (they didn't). The Nightwoods took some of the surface halflings, gnomes and elves and even a few dwarves who wanted to stay. The Gorokian Dwarves were rude and insulting to the wandering Reetersbeard and the Jarlborrin were uncomfortable with their return.

What was decided was that the Jarlborrin would "give up" one of their eastern (and poor) holdings called Ironcamp (which incidentally was one of the original holdings of the Reetersbeard dwarves) which they could "pay" for with 75% of the production of the land and the dwarves (and other races) living there being given to the Jarlborrin as lease and payments - with the land being deeded over to the Reetersbeard Dwarves at that time - it would be theirs free and clear.

The Reetersbeard dwarves thought about it and the concensus was they did not want to travel any further - this was their ancestral home. They took the deal.

And they worked hard for it. 3 coins of every 4 made went to the Jarlborrin's coffers. 3 sledges of marble or every 4 went west to Sorton. 3 gems of every 4 mined from the ground, 3 timbers of every 4 felled from the forests, 3 bags of grain of every 4 tilled from the earth went east to Jarlborrin while the Reetersbeard Dwarves subsisted on what remained. They bartered and traded and begged and scavenged from Tilani to Erylond for any job, any food, and resource they could help to extend their comfort and livelihood another year and get closer to fulfilling their lease without defaulting on it and losing their right to eventually live free again.

When the call to war came and the tribes of dwarves and gnomes struck out against the Randari Ympyr - the Reetersbeard Dwarves did not get involved - they were under no compunction to go to war and could not be enticed to do so by any means - instead they hunkered down and waited until it ended and then went back to paying off their debt.

Finally, almost 80 years ago - the last of the payments had been made the the Reeterbeard dwarves were free.

And they turned their industry and efforts to what they had been doing best for the last 3/4 of a century - acting as the middleman and merchant for the many dissimilar groups, cities, towns, clans, holdfasts, keeps, and despots that littered the now shattered Randari lands. They turned their minds to the best way to generate income and spawned huge caravans that traveled the busted roads and highways - sending hundreds of road repair crews ahead of the caravans to make sure the passage with safe and in good shape. Three times a year the great caravans made their way around the traderoads -the trip taking 75 to 80 days each cycle - and each cycle they pick up goods in one place and deliver them to another to be sold and take a small piece of the profits - which goes back to Ironcamp and helps improve the lives of the Reetersbeard dwarves and those who have stuck with them even in time of adversity.