War of Tears

Collapse of the Deeproad

 * "We had just supposedly won the largest conflict in our people's history and yet I looked around and saw cracks all around me. Our armies were devestated, our economy was in tatters, and although we had destroyed the only real threat on the continent who knew what lurked in the darkness."


 * -Hinder Ironflagger

It was only 4 years after the end of the War of Vengeance that the truly devestating moment of Karak Ankor would arrive. A massive series of earthquakes rocked the World Edge Mountains, and caused irreprable damage to many of the Dwarven Holds. The Skaven had not intended on causing this but they had attempted to open their great hanging bell within Skavenblight and instead had nearly destroyed the world, and had caused massive fisures to spread throughout the deep places of the world. The Skaven were depleted dramatically but the Dwarven losses were far more difficult to replace and thus the trade off ended up being a very good one for the Skaven. This damage along with the severe depletion of their armies in the War of Vengeance meant that the Dwarves were very vulnerable at this point, and it would be at this point that the thirteen Skaven Lords would decide to make their final move against Karak Ankor.



Greenskins

 * "The Dwarven Holds were once the envy of the world. Elves, Demons, and all manner of monsters had thrown themselves at us for centuries and the Dwarves had always managed some how to stay alive. This time our enemies came at us from the outside but even more dangerous was how they burrowed up from our own homes. We were fighting an enemy more numerous and in most places had lost the defences we had spent centuries constructing."


 * -Hinder Ironflagger

The Skaven begin to inflitrate massive number of Skaven into the weakened tunnel systems of the Dwarves in preperation for a massive invasion. Before they would launch their own attack they prepared a larger more insidious plan when they begin to assasinate and burn whole villages of Goblins in the regions of Ukraine. These massacres led to the Goblins doing exactly what the Skaven thought they would do when they migrated westward into the path of Karak Ankor and the World Edge Mountains. The Goblins had always been around, but now it was as if they were attempting to take over the Dwarven Holds in a way they had never before even attempted. The first sign that things were changing was when a goblin army led by a force of Black Orcs rampaged through the Dwarven realm of Karak Ungor

Fall of Karak Ungor
Karak Ungor stood at the far east of the World Edge Mountains and for this reason the entire Hold was the first thing in the path of the massive Goblin Horde that was screaming in from their old lands in Ukraine and farther east. The Dwarves who lived here dug more deeply than any other to promote and capture precious metals-a-days, and so deep and so widespread were their tunnels that even the most experienced amongst the Hold's miners didn't know the full extent of how far the tunnels went. After the earthquakes, the city was shaken as countless Night Goblins flocked to the numerous half-forgotten tunnels in the city and destroyed the defenders who barely were aware of the problem even as their outlying mines were overrun. When the Hold itself fell Morek Stonehammer the King of the Stonehammer Clan brought in massive numbers from the other Stonehammer Clan Hold of Karak Varn and attempted to retake the Hold. The army would make fifty attempts to retake the city but each attack failed due to the defenses of their own fortress and the incredible amount of goblins that were now teeming in the Hold. After these seemingly countless trials, they fought back to Karak Varn, and Karak Kadrin in the hopes of regrouping. The goblins would rename the Hold Red Eye Mountain and it would become the main base of the Goblins for centuries following its fall.


 * Hinder_Ironflagger.jpg"It wasn't until Karak Ungor fell that we really understood how bad things were in the east, but if we thought we learned anything the disaster at Karak Varn would end that dillusion."


 * -Hinder Ironflagger

When Karak Ungor fell the High Dwarves were still extremely strong and because of this the High King in Hinder Ironflagger called a meeting of the Kings of the Holds in Karaz-Az-Karak where he wanted to discuss what steps they would take as a people. As the Dwarves arrived the Kings of the eastern Holds discussed how they were under massive assault from Goblins coming from the east, and also their were growing number of attacks from Skaven who were burrowing from beneath the Holds themselves. All of this news though was overshadowed by the fact that a large number of Holds had not come when summoned, and this would be the beggining of the schism of the Dwarven Race as the Sof-Dwarves sent token forces to show their support and the Rof-Dwarves barely sent anything. Hinder Ironflagger was beyond upset and was forced to move forward with plans quicker then anyone wanted when it became clear that Karak Varn was coming under massive assault.



Battle of Karak Varn

 * "We raced towards Karak Varn with nothing but the news that the Hold was under massive assault. I think despite the fact that Karak Ungor lie in ruins and was teeming with Goblins we all thought we had this under control, and standing amongst the hundreds of thousands of Dwarves that left for Karak Varn I have to admit I to believed we had things under control."


 * -Grimm Firebeard

A massive army was assembled from all the clans of Karak Ankor and many of the Sof-Dwarves even sent numbers to the assembling force. After weeks of assembling their forces the army would head towards Karak Varn from three main meeting points. The largest force left from Karaz-Az-Karak and headed towards Karak Varn, the second largest force headed from Karak Azul in the north, and the smallest force headed from Barak-Varr and was mainly consisting of Sof-Dwarves and southern Dwarves from the Grandin Mountains. The main force led by Hinder Ironflagger consisted of some ninety thousand Dwarves and was massive in both size and skill so there was a level of cockiness amongst the army that didn't match the realistic position of the force. The main force would arrive on the western border of the realm of Karak Varn and would hold their to wait for the Barak-Varr force, and for word from the northern force. The force from Barak Varr would plan to travel to Karak Varn by stopping first at Karak Caraz, and this went according to plan until when they attempted to leave the hold came under a massive siege by a large force of Skaven who had burrowed their way up from the roots of the Hold. Word was sent to the main force that the Barak-Varr force was in serious trouble and would not be moving eastward, and at the same time the northern force sent word that they had arrived and were ready to relieve Karak Varn. As the two forces moved towards eachother to meet they found their path blocked by a large army of Goblins of whom was extremely large and as they couldnt communicate the two forces both moved agains the Goblin Force. As the main force moved against them they watched as the northern force moved towards Karak Varn in an attempt to get into the Hold itself. The northern force would make it into the Hold where they would find a desperate battle for the streets in which clearly the Goblins were winning. With their arrival they turned the tides and forced the Goblins back for a moment and allowed the Dwarves to rally to them and eventually retreat out of Karak Varn.


 * Kraggder_Grimnar.jpg"They all believed we had moved towards the Hold because we were betraying them but the opposite was true. We had come here to save Karak Varn, and that was what was most important. We understood that the main force could handle that army but the Hold itself was in danger of falling and we had to act quickly."


 * -Dagus Tharassian

Now acting alone the main force would fight for hours against the massive Goblin horde and when the dust had settled the Goblin horde lay destroyed but the main force was much diminished and word came to them that the northern force was falling before the forces attacking the Hold itself. When he asked whether the Hold could be held he was told that it was no longer possible, and it is said that Hinder wept tears of pain over the loss of the Hold before ordering all Dwarves in the realm of Karak Varn to retreat. Much of the people of Karak Varn were able to retreat to the nearbye Karak Eight Peaks, but the forces within the Hold were nearly completely gone, and the northern force had lot huge numbers saving the Dwarves of Karak Varn so that they could escape. As the forces retreated Hinder Ironflagger would be killed alongside his brother, and several other Kings as the main force came under attack from the surrounding hills, and lost huge numbers trying to get to Karak Eight Peaks. The northern force had taken the southern way out and headed south towards Karak Caraz in an attempt to save the force from Barak Varr. By the time they reached the Hold all the Dwarves had either fled or lay dead inside the empty Hold of Karak Caraz.

Fall of Karak Drazh

 * "Everything was collapsing around us, and with the High King dead, and his brother coming to power, and then dying the entire Dwarven Race held its breathe for the death blow."


 * -Kraggder Grimnar

With the Dwarven army now in tatters, the new High King was sworn in, and before anyone could plan anything it was discovered that he was besieged in Karak Drazh. At this point the Dwarves were basically helpless, and as they planned a counter attack they got word back that Karak Drazh had fallen along with the High King in the fighting. Dwarves wept, and the sence of defeat was over everyone but Brazen Ironflagger would pull everyone up and take the High King crown. Brazen Ironflagger changed strategies from dealing with the Goblins in the open to attempting to rebuild as much of the Underway as they could while at the same time shoring up their defences for any attacks that might come. The plan was the entire Karak Ankor to dig in while Brazen tried to get assistence from Croatia, The Empire, and the other Dwarves as he believed that without help they would all fall. When Karak Drazh fell though everyone knew that the capital of the south in Karak Eight Peaks was right in the path of the Goblin Horde, and thus Brazen made the defence of Karak Eight Peaks a top priority.

Fall of Karak Eight Peaks
After decades of fighting a losing battle against the Goblins the Dwarves were hit with the hammer stroke in the form of the Skaven.