War of Gold and Gloom

The War of Gold and Gloom was a ongoing war between the gold dwarves from the Great Rift and the gray dwarves from the Underspires over the lost shield dwarf kingdom of Deep Shanatar.

History
The war began when the gold dwarves of the Great Rift sent the Army of Gold into the caverns of Taark Shanat. To stop the expansion of the dwarves, the duergar of the Underspires dispatched the Army of Steel around 1369 DR to Shanatar. As of 1372 DR, the fighting between the Army of Steel and the Army of Gold still raged.

In 1383 DR, the War of Gold and Gloom came to an unexpected end in the abandoned halls of Barakuir. The crusaders of the Great Rift discovered a collection of ancient runestones while the fighting between the Army of Gold and the Army of Steel was raging. The runestones depicted the betrayal of Clan Duergar by the illithid of Oryndoll. This discovery made the loretaker illithids unleash a horde of thralls on the embattled armies. The army of thralls was shattered, and most of the duergar were killed. Half of the gold dwarves were also killed. This conflict united the the remnants of the gold dwarven and duergar armies against the illithid of Oryndoll. The combined army then marched west into Old Shanatar to reclaim a lost bastion of Deep Shanatar to use as a base against a possible illithid invasion.