Kingdom of Karak Izor

Karak Izor is one of the two Dwarf Kingdoms alonside Karak Mulger that are situated in the Mountains of Lucerne. Karak Izor has been built in the center of a naturally forming cavern. Situated high up on the inner ledge it can only be approached from one causeway, although the extensive underground tunnels mean there are many other secret entryways.

The Hold of Karak Izor held onto its belief in Karak Ankor for centuries, and resisted several popular resolutions in its halls to leave Karak Ankor. In the end it along with Karak Mulger left the Empire when it became clear that it was no longer capable or willing to assist them so far away from the World Edge Mountains. The Hold of Karak Izor now controls the entire mountains of Lucerne following the destruction of Karak Mulger, but this hold is tenuous with the expansion of both the goblins, and Humans. Although the humans saved Karak Izor, under Bill Lovie this relationship was destroyed, and the Dwarves didn't communicate with Lucerne until King Andrew Lovie sent messengers into the Deep Roads, and found the Dwarf Mine of Thaig Kortaze. This sparked a reunion of sorts and has reastablished ties between the old allies.

Early History
Before the coming of the Dwarves the Mountains of Lucerne and the areas inside where the Holds would eventually be were the homes of nothing more then a large number of Troggs, as well as spider nests. These grew in number until eventually they would ambush an exploratory Nemenor army heading from Gondor. This event would lead to the halting of Numerons expansion into the region, and changed the cours of Europe quite dramatically.



Founding of Karak Izor
Main Article : Dwarves

Karak Ankor and its sister Hold of Karak Mulger were some of the last Dwarven Holds founded in Europe, and their founding didn't occur until the final days of the Dwarven Exodus.

The Mountains of Lucerne had always been a contested mountain, and in the centuries before the Dwarves came the mountains were fought over between spiders and trogs. The spiders eventually won, and it was this victory that allowed the Dwarves to take them down when they arrived, as the spiders were severely weakened in the conflict.

With their control over the mountains, they spent centuries clearing it out completely, and during this time Karak Izor, and Karak Mulger grew fabulously rich and expansive.

The Coming of the Elves
The wealth of the Hold of Karak Izor, and its sister city Karak Mulger only accelerated when the region became home to a growing number of High Elves. The High Elves were in the process of expanding into France, and were open to trade with the Dwarves. The Dwarves of Lucerne opened their trade convoys and traded huge amounts of goods with the Elves, perhaps only exclipsed in their trade with the Elves by the massive Dwarven Hold of Karak Matron.

War of Vengeance
Main Article : War of Vengeance

The Good will between the two sides would explode into war after a series of tricks, and failed negoitiations led Karak Ankor to declare war on Ulthuan. This war raged across Europe with the holds of Karak Izor, and Karak Mulger being rather unaffected in fact there was an increase in trade due to so many Dwarves using the Lucerne Mountains as a jumping area for the invasion of France.

Fall of Karak Ankor
Main Article : Karak Ankor

With the destruction of much of Karak Ankor, the Dwarves of surviving holds had to make a decision. Were they going to stay with Karak Ankor, or become more indepedant. The Dwarves of Karak Izor, and their sister hold in Karak Mulgar chose the path of the Sof-Dwarves. The Sof-Dwarves were being planned as a lightly organized grouping of semi-independant Dwarven Holds, that while still anwsering to Karak Ankor, would not be completely attatched to its survival.

The coming of the Goblins
Main Article : Driving Tide




 * "We got all tied up in how much minerals we were pulling up, and we forgot about what this place was about. We didn't come to the far west of the world to get rich. We came to Lucerne to be safer then the World Edge Mountains would ever allow our people to be."


 * -Unknown Dwarf

Following the War of Vengeance the wealth of Karak Mulger, and its sister Hold of Karak Izor only increased due to the increased presence of the humans of the region. This wealth and power had the reverse effect on one area of the Dwarves and that was in their preperation. The Dwarves slowly lost their vigilance over the mountains and in thise time the Night Goblins swept in and were able to achieve massive numbers. Following the Migration of the Night Goblins, the Dwarves of Lucerne found the mountains were now teeming with night goblins. The Dwarves only mobilized to the threat after the Nigh Goblins overran the mine of Dun Mulger. The Night Goblins first arrived on the scene of Lucerne when the Skaven begin instigating massive migrations of Goblins from their ancestoral homes in eastern Croatia, and the mountains of Central Europe. Before this the Night Goblins had a fear of the Dwarves and what they beleived them capable of. This fear went away as the Skaven fed them stories of the weakeness of the Dwarves and before long the Nigh Goblins of the nearbye Westros Mountains moved westward towards the Lucerne Mountains. The Dwarves had become arrogant in their position in the mountains and so barely had defences in place for subteranean invaders. In this way the Night Goblins were able to sneak massive numbers into the mountains before the Dwarves were even aware of what was happening. The Nigh Goblins congregated around the fortress of Karak Mulger, and the first sign of trouble was when they took over the nearbye mine of Dun Mulger.

Death of Fundin

 * Death_of_Fundin.jpg"They say that Dwalin walked alone in the vast emptiness that was the eastern mines of Lucerne to find the body of his father Fundin. When he arrived the rumors say he found his father lying against a rock with an arrow in his chest. Seeing this sort of death it should have mobilized an entire land against them, but instead we talked."
 * -Balin

The peaceful excistence in the Dwarven realms of Karak Izor, and Karak Matron would end the moment Fundin the clan leader of Clan Durin was killed by a goblin archer. The eastern parts of the Lucernian Mountains had become known for being dangerous for Dwarven travellers but the minerals of the area still attracted the more daring of the Dwarven leadership, and miners. Fundin was one of these more adventerous Dwarves and he wanted the Gromil that was present in the east, and to get it he took a large force from his Thaig of Moria and moved against the eastern mines of which the Dwarves were ignoring had not been heard of for some time. While travelling in the eastern mines Fundin was ambushed alongside much of his company by a massive force of Goblins and the few that survived spoke of the Goblins being in their thousands. Before the death of Balin it was believed by most of the Dwarves that their holds were imepenatrabe, and thus their was a great deal of arrogance within their ranks. When the leadership of Karak Izor contemplated the death of Balin they preapred to move against the encroachement of the Goblins but they didn't understand that the Goblins had already become more then they could handle.



Trouble
Following the First and Second Battle of Karak Mulger, the two dwarf holds came to the realization that they were in serious trouble. Messengers were sent out to the High Dwarves, in the World Edge Mountains for help. These messengers returned back with the news that the High Dwarves were also being invaded by Orcs and Goblins, and would not be able to assist.

Without any help coming from their High Dwarf cousins, the Dwarves were gradually pushed back inch by inch. Realizing that Karak Mulger was on the verge of falling, the Dwarves sent messengers to the surrounding Human Kingdoms. They were sent rejections by everyone that they sent it to and so in their desperation they went to the nearbye Human city of Forks which wasn't led by one force and thus wasn't exactly the most promising force. When they arrived at Forks they set in motion a dramatic conflict betweent he ruling houses.



Third Battle of Karak Mulger
While the loss of the army at the Gate wasn't good for the Goblins they had nearly unlimated forces at this point and thus they wanted to keep up the pressure so they hastily re-launched their attack on Karak Mulger which was still attempting to repair the damage to their defences. The Battle was a tough fight but again the Goblins were pushed back by the determined Dwarves who were at this point beggining to recieve reinforcements from Karak Izor as the situation out front the gate had somewhat stabalized the hole warzone.

First Battle of Karak Izor
After the disasterous First battle of the Gate, and the following defeat they suffered during the Karak Mulger, the Night Goblins became even more aggressive in their attacks. The Goblins moved many of their forces to the far back of the conflict where they launched a series of raids against the unprepared Karak Izor who didn't think they could be hit. In this lack of preperation the Goblins had found a series of mines that were abandoned and through them they were able to sneak there way inside the Hold itself where once inside a series of desperate battles were fought which together are called the First Battle of Karak Izor.



Fall of Karak Mulger
Main Article : Karak Mulger As the Night Goblins attacked the Dwarf Hold of Karak Izor their main thrust came out when their huge forces attacked the recovering fortress of Karak Mulger. The Dwarves had still been working on the repairs to the Hold, and because of the swiftness of the attack the Goblins were able to mass themselves at all entrances to the Hold, and had it completely surrounded. As the Dwarves prepared to accept the charge of the endless Goblins they were all shocked as the Goblins burst through tunnels in the deepest core of Karak Mulger. With these breaches the Dwarves were forced to pull forces from their strong points, and this was exactly what the Goblins had wanted them to do. The moment the Dwarves moved from the fortress the Goblins begin overruning the defences at every entrance. The moment of the fall of the Hold was at hand, and everyone involved knew what was happening as the entrances, and the Dwarves were pushed back completely. The Dwarves that had went to react to the burrowing Goblins now discovered their fellow Dwarves retreating into the core of the Hold, and with this the thousands of Dwarves left prepared for their last stand. The Nigh Goblins massed their thousands and then charged the beligured Dwarves before the forces of Karak Izor could once again intervene and possibly save what little remained of the hold. The Dwarves held the gateways into the core for more then two hours before the last Gate Gaurd was pulled apart, and with this the Goblins were inside the walls, and they proceeded to massacre the remaining Dwarves inside the Hold



End Game
With Karak Mulger overrun the goblins believed themselves to have the upper hand. In this high for the Night Goblins their scouts reported that the human army had regrouped and was now on its way to the gate with the obvious intentions of retaking Karak Mulgar. The Night Goblin leader knew he didn't have the hold neccessary to be able to maintain control of Karak Mulgar, and if the humans did enter the mountains and team up with the Dwarves, the Night Goblins could possbily lose the war.

With this in mind the Goblin commander pulled his forces from the siege of Karak Izor, and left a large force their to hold the Dwarves in place. He then took the entire Night Goblin army and headed to the gates of Lucerne. When William Lovie, and the Lucernian army arrived at the gate they saw the massive Goblin Army arrayed in front of them. In this moment the two armies just stared eachother down. Each side wanting to be the ones with initative this caused the two armies to charge eachother.

Second Battle of Karak Izor
While the Goblin army was leaving to attack the humans at the gate, the Dwarven King of Karak Izor, and Karak Mulger gathered their entire army and launched a shock attack at the goblin army that had remained to hold them in place. So much hate was on the side of the Dwarves, and so sudden was the attack, the goblin army barely even got out of their beds before the Dwarves had completely wiped them out. With this victory the Dwarves moved themselves behind the army of the Nigh Goblins.

William Lovie III.
Main Article : William Lovie III.

With the seperation of their relationship with the Humans of Lucerne, and the reasurgance of the goblins, the Dwarves of Karak Izor once again fear for their survival. Calls for aid to Lucerne were heard by Bill, but instead of honoring the old tradition of their alliance, he laughed at the delegate and told him to never return.

Thaig Kortaze
See Also : Thaig Kortaze

Thaig Kortaze is a large Dwarven Thaig within the Kingdom of Karak Izor, and is located in between the two large holds of Karak Izor, and Karak Mulger. The Thaig itself was a glorious Thaig that grew extensively rich through being the intermediary between the two holds, and it remained in this position until the Driving Tide where much of it was destroyed by the Nigh Goblins and it now stands contested between the two forces.

Thaig Kortaze was founded by Clan Redhorn during the initial forays into the Lucernian Mountains, and although they became just as powerful as Clan Durin, or Clan Blackbeard they were always placed in a far position of fourth behind the larger Clans.

Ortan Thaig
See Also : Ortan Thaig

Ortan Thaig is a medium sized Dwarven Thaig located within the Kingdom of Karak Izor, and its location lies north east of the hold and north of Kortaze Thaig. Its location north of Kortaze Thaig has meant that its constantly under threat from the mountain of Goblins that surround them, and they hae formed the bulkward against the forces of the Night Goblins.



Aeducan Thaig
See Also : Aeducan Thaig

Aeducan Thaig is a medium sized Dwaren Thaig located within the Kingdom of Karak Izor, and its location lies southwest of Home Valley and the Dwaren Hold itself. This location has meant that the Thaig is one of the most sheltered locations in the Kingdom, and because of this there are a dispraportionate number of smiths, and crafter that lie in this Thaig.

Aeducan Thaig was founded during the hayday of the Dwares of the Lucerne Mountains, and it was used as a means of epediating trade between the Dwares and Eles. When the Eles left the land the Hold became a center for smithing, and crafting, and this continued into the days of the Driing Tide. As the only Thaig other then Haedin Thaig that was unhit during the Driing they hae become ery aluable as a source of armor, weapons, and materials.

Moria Thaig
See Also : Moria Thaig

Moria (also known as Khazad-dûm, Dwarrowdelf, Hadhodrond, Halls of Durin, Mines of Moria, and Phurunargian) is the name given to the Dwarven underground Thaig located south of the larger Thaig Kortaze. Moria is the historical home of Clan Durin, and Clan Durin continues to fight a losing battle to regain their former home from the overwhelming Goblins that now infest it.

There, for many thousands of years, a thriving Dwarvish community delved deep below the mountains seeking Mithril - and the name Khazad-dûm was mainly given to that colonization. At that time, the great mansions of Khazad-dûm were renamed Moria, the 'black pit' or 'dark chasm'. In the Third Deep of Khazad-dum were the upper armories. Far below were the treasuries of the dwarves. In the mines of Khazad-dum were found gold, silver, iron, beryls, opals, and other precious metals and gems. The lodes of mithril were deep under the mountains, running north toward the roots of the Redhorn. Yet still the dwarves worked and quarried the forges beneath the Lucernian Mountains until TA 1980 of the Third Age. In that year, they delved too deeply beneath Mount Barazinbar and a Balrog was unleashed on the halls of Moria and slew their king, Durin VI. This creature of darkness was henceforth called Durin's Bane by the dwarves.

Goverment
The Hold of Karak Izor is ruled by a Senate that makes decisons as to the direction the Hold, and its outlying Thaigs will go. This internal decisions are the job of the Senate but when it comes to the military of Karak Izor, the High Thane of Karak Izor makes the final decisons

The Senate
Made up of 15 of the most influencial and wise members of Karak Izor the Senate of Karak Izor is the main decision maker in actions not having to do with the military.

High Thane
The High Thane is basically the General of the Karak Izor military and in this role he controls the smithers, soilders, and overall military machine of Karak Izor.

Medrig Hallbreaker
See Also : Medrig Hallbreaker



Medrig Hallbreaker is the current High Thane of theDwarvesof Karak Izor, and in this position he leads the Karak Izor was against the goblins of the Lucerne Mountains. Medrig Hallbreaker has three siblings in the form of Cevon, Troin, and Voin Hallbreaker of which his sister Cevon was married off to a Dwarven prince in the Empire of Matron where she now lives, his brother Troin was captured by Goblins during the Driving Tide and has been a slave at Karak Matron for nearly seventy years, his final brother Voin is one of the front line commanders leading the battle in Thaig Kortaze.

Medrig Hallbreaker grew quite close to William Lovie I. and his death was a hard one for Medrig because it followed the death of his father only 17 years before. Medrig went to Lucerne to attend the funeral and found the Lucerne Kingdom in tatters following the destruction caused by John Lovie. Medrig attempted to help but the humans were distracted and the relationship strained a bit because of the disrespect he was treated with by several nobles inside Lucerne. Medrig met Bill Lovie during his return from Lyons, and the stories say that Medrig's high priest told him that man was pure evil, and its known for a fact that the two almost came to blows when Bill insulted Karak Izor for its uselesness. Medrig would become more and more depressed as time went by as he watched the goblins slowly win the battle for Thaig Kortaze, and thus it was with this attitude that he would be greeted by messengers from the court of William Lovie III. These messengers would bring to him promices of aid in the future and a growth in the relationship between the two groups.

Culture
The Dwarves of Karak Izor are known for their white colored clothing, and this applies to all things in Karak Izor. The armor, and cloaks worn by the Dwarves of Karak Izor, are usually made to be a white color, and in this way the Hold of Karak Izor has an almsot angelic look to it.

The Dwarves of Karak Izor are also known for their heavy use of the Gregan animal for their main husbandry needs. The Gregan is a more rarely used animal in all other Holds of the Dwarves, and the reason the Gregan is used is because the main husbandry animal of the Dwarves the Calk was made extinct in the Mountains of Lucerne by a particulary bad series of virusus that swept through its population. This different food source has made the Dwarves of Karak Izor have an almost pale tint to them, as they are not as adequetly supplied as the other Dwarven Holds.

Language
See Also : Khazalid


 * "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!"


 * -Ancient dwarven battle cry meaning "The axes of the dwarves! The dwarves are upon you!"

Khazalid is the language of the Dwarfs, or Dawi. The deeply conservative language has not changed noticeably in many thousands of years in either its spoken or written runic form. The Dwarven language sounded strange and harsh to other races, and no other non-dwarf did they permit to learn their language (save Eöl The Dark Elf only, who befriended the Dwarves and dwelt in Nan Elmoth), for it was guarded jelously.

The Dwarfs are extremely proud of their native tongue, and they rarely speak in the company of other races, almost never teaching it to other creatures. To humans it is known as the ‘secret tongue of the Dwarfs’, sometimes overheard but never understood. The Dwarf language includes very few words of obvious Elven or Human origin. By contrast there are many loan words from Khazalid in the tongues of Men, which suggests that Dwarfs must have taught some fundamental words to their taller allies. This is most obviously the case of words pertaining to traditional Dwarven craftskills of smithing and masonry, skills which Dwarfs taught Men many centuries ago.

Frostborne
See Also : Frostborne

Amongst the Dwarven Race there is a sub-sect of the race called the Frostborne of whom are characterized by their near blue skin. From a distance, the frostborn look like any other normal dwarf, but upon closer examination you are able to see that their skin is a noticeable light blue color, almost like ice. Upon even closer examination, the frostborn have similar marks on them as those of the earthen. This may mean that the frostborn are earthen who had adapted to the harsh cold of Northrend.

They are led by Yorg Stormheart, "King of the Frostborn", who rules over them from mighty Frosthold in the Storm Peaks of northern Lucernian Mountains. The Frostborne are basically only existing within the mountains of Storm Peaks but they have a small number that also live within the Lucernian Mountains within the Hold of Karak Izor.