Karak Khaz

Between Karak Azgal and The Misty Mountain lies many a mountain, but one of note is particularly rocky and treacherous. One side overlooks the Sour Sea, while the other points off toward the Marshes of Madness. Yet far towards the peak, off to the South, lies the entrance to the well-reputed hold of Karak Khaz. By dwarf standards, Karak Khaz is considerably small, despite stretching deep into the earth. Many of the older dwarf lords – and indeed their fellow dwarfs that live in their holds – do not bother learning of such a small hold. Yet to non-dwarfs, it is a location worth recording on a map.

Unlike many dwarf holds, Karak Khaz was founded around a single runesmith and his family. Many generations ago, a budding runesmith named Khazmar completed his apprenticeship in Karak Varn and set out on a long trek through many of the other holds throughout the mountains. It was during this time that he developed his smithing. Despite learning his master knew and being of skill enough to shame all but the most legendary smiths of other races, Khazmar felt his considerable talent devoid of his own unique signature. With every hold he visited, Khazmar sought out the most skilled rune lords to pick up what sagely wisdom they were willing to impart to a young runesmith. Upon his return to Karak Varn, Khazmar found his master (who was of great old age, even for a dwarf) on his deathbed.

As a final tribute to his master, Khazmar gathered all of the gromril he could afford with the wealth he made selling his crafts throughout his travels and began smithing an immensely powerful rune hammer. Alas, the hammer took too long and his master succumbed shortly before its completion. In its final stages, as a reminder of his earliest days, Khazmar struck the runes of his master’s initials on either side of the hammer’s head. For decades onward, Khazmar used The Gromril Hammer (as it became known) and became the hold’s foremost authority on smithing and the personal runesmith of the lord (naturally amassing an impressive fortune in the process). As the years passed, Khazmar took a wife and at last had a son and heir. Yet, sensing the trouble that would soon befall Karak Varn, he took his family and left the hold. It was merely three years later that Karak Varn fell to the Goblins.

Venturing until he found the most suitable peak to the plans in his mind, Khazmar trudged through the Badlands and stopped at a mountain not far north of the Misty Mountain. It was upon this mountain that Khazmar spent the rest of his days. He quickly set upon fashioning himself an anvil with which to teach his son his art of smithing, that it may live well beyond his years. In time news spread of Khazmar’s relocation, and the occasional smith would make the long trek seeking apprenticeship. Honored, Khazmar began teaching every dwarf that would come to see him – but only the basics and core techniques. His true art was reserved for his son.

As more apprentices arrived, they began bringing their families. Soon, Khazmar’s lonely home on the mountain with his family became a small settlement of dwarves. The apprentices send their sons down into the mountain to mine to provide the materials they needed for their apprenticeships. News traveled faster, and more miners began to arrive seeking to earn their own fortunes selling materials to the smiths that lived there. After a few centuries, around 600 years old, Khazmar officially declared the mountain settlement as a hold. Karak Khaz was founded a hold of expert smiths and apprentices. It was not until another century-and-a-half passed that Khazmar, with the aid of his son, completed his greatest achievement ever: his master runic anvil that sits upon the western face of the mountain, looking out toward the Marshes of Madness. Khazmar died at the old age of 837, leaving his son his art, the Anvil, and The Gromril Hammer.

The Uniform of Karak Khaz
Unlike other dwarf holds where many clans live together with various coats of arms, Karak Khaz was founded not by clans but around a single individual dwarf. As such, the hold functions in many ways more similar to an enormous guild than a hold. As a guild, there’s an agreed-upon uniformity expected to maintain appearances. Warriors of Karak Khaz wear mail armor trimmed in a bold red over top of white tunics. Smiths and other dwarfs not a part of the hold’s militia stick to a similar color-scheme, often wearing red-trimmed white tunics and garb of other assortments. The official coat of arms to the hold is simply a white flag with red embellishments and the runic initials of Khazdan’s name, though each smith may of course display his own variation at his stand to help buyer’s remember where to shop. Most warriors in Karak Khaz wear steel armor, as only the wealthiest can afford anything else. Yet, as a reward for service, Khazdan personally forges each of his most experienced and successful warriors a mail suit of gold-infused steel. Additionally, as they are often out manning trading posts or scouting throughout the Marshes of Madness, the Rangers of Karak Khaz often wear swamp-colored cloaks that can be drawn around them to aid in concealment when tracking enemy movements.

Khazdan Gromhamer
Karak Khaz still stands proud today under the leadership of the Rune Lord Khazdan Gromhamer. The sixth-great grandson of Khazmar, Khazdan has helped the hold prosper on levels the old smith had never ventured to imagine. It was Khazdan that first opened the hold to non-dwarfs for trade. While his great-grandfather had begun the idea of trade outposts as both a method of selling crafts and providing advanced warning of hostile race’s movements, it was not until Khazdan’s rule that a path accessible to other races was carved up the mountains path and the entrance to the hold became as a small city of smiths and crafters selling their wares and weaponry. But no weapons are as sought-after as the few made by Khazdan for sale by his family. The majority of his craftsmanship is reserved for the hold’s standing army or the many war machines that lay high above the mountain path, guarding against any enemies. Renowned for being almost as great as Khazmar himself, Khazdan can often be found standing high on the western face of the mountain at the Anvil of Khazmar. It is there with The Gromril Hammer that he forged the most valuable relic ever forged in Karak Khaz – an impenetrable suit of mail, made from gromril, specifically to protect is younger brother when the nearby Orcs and Goblins decide to lay siege.