Varn Torum

Founding
Varn Torum is a dwarven nation in western Eldham. The dwarves of Varn Torum were carved from the stone of the earth, and granted life by the Goddess Yora. Afterwards, the God of Blood, Tokad, would pour the fiery crimnson liquid of long deceased giants into the dwarves' veins, granting them the strength of said giants. Gifted by the gods and strenghtened by giants, the carving of the mountains would start soon after. Indeed, the mountains themselves would bend to the will of the dwarves, offering their insides to serve as homes to the little folk, and their treasures would remain hidden no more. Iron and gold and diamonds flowed like rivers, and the dried blood of the dwarven folk would be found deep under the earth in the form of strange red ores, capable of powering incredible machinery. Yet another proof that the place of a dwarf is under the mountains.

Stranger yet is the appearence of counsin races to the dwarves. Namely the forest gnomes from the region of Onthukhan, known in their native tongue as Maddrakki, who used to enslave so called "inferior races", such as trolls, goblins, ogres and the snow elves of modern day Anglunia. The true relationship between the gnomes and the dwarves is not known, but it is assumed that some degree of kinship is shared between the two.

Although similar in stature, there is a distinct difference in how gnomes and dwarves are built. Dwarves generally have wider shoulders, squarre jaws, bigger (and thicker) facial and regular hair, as well as bigger noses, when compared to gnomes, who are also a bit shorter, albeit not by much. Gnomes are confortable anywhere, wheareas you would not find a true dwarf confortable anywhere that wasn't under several feet of solid rock. Stout and heavily muscled, dwarves are warriors and blacksmiths, when gnomes generally prefer the ways of diplomacy and follow where money goes, albeit their crafty minds mean they make for good engineers and, as such, are not far from home when creating machines of war.

Founding and Early History
Once the borders of Varn Torum's capital, Khun-Drakhar, were established, the dwarves would begin the construction of their grand halls and front gates. With construction being helmed by head architects exttsector_z and Sueyuet, the capital would begin to form within the mountain. Construction in these earlier periods had been slow, so while the mountain city was being worked on, the surrounding of the mountain would see some construction as well. Small homes tucked into the sides of the hills and large expansive farms were built, with the Gloomshroom Tavern also being built in this early period by BoggleboyTwitch. Eventually, the growth of the capital would lead BoggleboyTwitch to found a new city not far from the capital, on an island, and would name it Gloomshroom Isle. Along with the growth of the population, construction would be better facilitated, with the underground city getting two additional layers to the city.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and the grueling work went on... Until they dug to such depths and with such greed that a creature that can only be described as demonic was found. The best fought the dwarves on their undeground domain, and every inch lost was paid in blood. The titanic clash was eventually over, and the mountain folk won a strange prize: the glowing heart of the creature. Dwarven scientists took it back for testing and discovered that it was a powerful star that would emit a beam of light towards the sky. They named this star the Heart of the Mountain, for the creature was assumed to be the spirit of the mountain fighting back against invaders, not unlike your body and its imune system, and harnessed its energy to increase the efficiency of their digging, accelerating the process of developing the capital. How ironic.

Recent and Ongoing History
While the Kingdom was developing rather well, its diplomacy and decision making was being called into question by the council. This eventually led with the original High King, Captainflaresoul, stepping down entirely from government. Power peacefully transferred over to GarriGoyle, who would now rule as High King. Two administrators, exttsector_z and Sueyuet, were also chosen to be Diarchs in order to help the High King whenever necessary. Not long after this shift in government, Varn Torum saw a spike in tourism and population thanks to their newly picked recruiter, Gandalfthegay. This population spike led to Varn Torum developing walls to counter bandits, increasing housing for new members, and overhauling spawn and turning it into a shop. More projects are planned, with the heart of Khun-Drakhar about to undergo major construction. The reestablished Mallean Empire under the rule of Lord_Khan was also integrated into Varn Torum. As it Expanded Westward to protect its mining interests in the Ardoth-Tor Mesa's, it assumed the leadership of a number of smaller cities, many ruined and decaying, but two, the cities of Colectria and Xutichal welcomed their rule, though the the latter rebelled due to a collapse of the ruling family.

As time went on, many more citizens would slowly find their way to Varn Torum, either through traditional channels of Advertising, in attempts to reconnect with and support many of the lost dwarven souls across Eldham, but also numerous Refugees and Migrants, fleeing to the area due to the Governments Support towards those who have gone through the same hardship they felt. Among those are the Cities of Saphirdorf and Kharbranth, both being created by refugees from the now colapsed Phoenia

The current borders of Varn Torum were created during the collapse of Valesco, and the the border conflicted it created between Varn Torum and Iremith, which culminated in the Suspected Assassination of Iremith then Leader, Admiral Kartoffel, though Varn was later cleared of Guilt when the True Murderer was discovered. The resulting borders split the land between the two nations, and over time relations have greatly improved with the hard work of the King.

Amethyst Expansion
In the night of the 6th of november 2021 player L_OwO (Skippy the Gnome, minister of Culture for Varn Torum) discovered, while mining near to the capital of Khun Drakhar, a wonderfully purple cave full of amethyst. It was a massive geode of the precious resource, that could be used as building blocks, as lenses, as lamps and, strangelly enough, as food. As far as the gnome knew, he was one of the very first to discover a geode in Eldham, and he promptly set up a shop for calcite, smooth basalt and the amethyst itself. Greed had moved him, for he took too long to claim the piece of land that included the geode. A few days later, while attempting to claim the geode as part of the capital alongside player exttsector_z (one of the diarchs), he found out that the resource had, by complete accident, been claimed by the newly founded kingom of Tar'durgal, an island nation, also made of of dwarves. It was clear to both that they would need to negotiate with the king of Tar'durgal, player silver206

After a short time negotiating with the diarch, the king spoke directly to the gnome, and they shortly arrived in an agreement. Skippy would have mining and harvesting rights in the geode, as well as naming rights for having discovered the caves, but would need to forfeit the calcite that he had already collected over to Tar'durgal, as well as a mending book. There is also a law that was agreed upon when harvesting: one should not use any pickaxes above the stone level, for fear of accidentally and irreversibly destroying the amethyst generating blocks. The King of Tar'durgal, the High King of Varn Torum and Skippy the Gnome signed a contract to make the deal as official as possible.

Structure
The Government is composed of the Council, the Diarchy, and the High King himself. The Council discusses with the Diarchs and High King on major issues, and votes on important issues or diplomatic situations. The Diarchs help administrate the nation with the High King, writing legislation and keeping everything in check. The High King himself manages the nation alongside the Diarchs while also doing diplomacy when necessary, however cannot make major decisions without consulting the Council.

Economy
Primarily run by a combination of independent freemen who run stalls and both produce and sell goods privately, however the state also has an additional supply and production system for the sake of creating public works and projects, which is funded and maintained by the Drakhari Council through a combination of Taxation and Donations.

Environment
A map in the making with all areas to be named for biomes;

Biome Map

Provinces
To be renamed when decided upon;

Crystal Candy
The newly discovered Skippya Amethyst Caves, extremely close to the capital of Khun Drakhar, whose true location is know to precious few, bare the fruit of the very earth the dwarves were born from. Its discoverer wasn't a dwarf, but what he discovered there was fundamentally linked to the very soul of the mountain folk. A edible rock, known simply as Crystal Candy, that grows amongst the amethyst buds of the caves. It tastes like regular hard candy made of sugar, only the taste is more pronounced, and it smells of wet earth and mossy caves. The womb of the earth bares fruit once again, this time to satiate her oh so hungry children.

Sidenote: there are rumours that if you grind the Crystal Candy into a fine powder than sniff it all at once it has rather unusual effects on the minds of one would be user, namely accute euforia, followed by a prolongued period with no need for rest or sleep, then long days of lethargic lazyness, as the body struggles to move. This is untested, but not recommended either way, for one should always be careful when sniffing high amounts of anything.

Languages
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