Clan Melairkyn

Clan Melairkyn was an ancient dwarven clan of artisans, explorers, and traders. Its mark was Dumathoin’s symbol with an axe as the inner gem’s border.

History
When King Melair I discovered deposits of mithral in the rock beneath Mount Waterdeep in, the area was rapidly expanded into Melairbode, later known as Undermountain. Their home was under increasing threat from the drow over the course of the centuries, until a huge attack in 34 DR killed King Melair IV, who was their ruler at the time, and forced them deeper into the mountain. They were driven out of Undermountain in 211 DR.

Sometime before Halaster's Higharvestide in 1369 DR, some of the surviving Clan Melairkyn worshipers of Clangeddin Silverbeard assembled Clangeddin's Hearth, the organization with one goal - to take back the clan's ancient home deep in Undermountain. With Halaster's disappearance in 1369 DR, Clangeddin's Hearth seized the opportunity to establish an outpost in the clan's abandoned temple of Clangeddin Silverbeard in Undermountain. During the same period of time, drow reestablished their presence in Undermountain, often clashing with the dwarves.

In 1370 DR, Clangeddin's Hearth's dwarves attempted to wash a tribe of kobolds out of Undermountain's sewers. The drow used the kobolds as scouts and overwatch by the drow, led by Matron Azurna, and this attack angered her enough to take decisive action against Clangeddin's Hearth. She led the squad of drow assassins to slaughter almost every dwarf in the temple of Clangeddin Silverbeard. To add insult to injury, she gifted the temple to her lich ally Morik Stormhand, who desecrated the fallen dwarves' memory by bringing them back as his undead servants. Following the disastrous events of 1370 DR, only a handful of Clangeddin's Hearth members remained alive. Notably, Urkantor avoided the slaughter by being imprisoned at the time in Horazak's ancient dwarven prison.

Rumors
Some scholars said that around one hundred dwarves from the Melairkyn clan escaped the final slaughter, fled Undermountain, and ventured west or south. Some claimed that they were involved in the creation of Phalorm, the Fallen Kingdom, yet some maintained that the Melairkyn still populated the depths of Undermountain.

Survivors
In actual fact, a tiny number of members of the Melairkyn clan still existed by 1370 DR:
 * Bandaerl, son of Rykos, a dwarven priest of Dumathoin who became an archlich and still guarded the tomb of King Melair in lower Undermountain.
 * Corman Shieldstar
 * Lady Darlas Shieldstar
 * Daizez, a dwarven historian who authored A Brief History of Undermountain.
 * Gyudd, the last direct descendant of the Melairkyn dwarves in Waterdeep as of 1375 DR.
 * Jaerloon Bucklebar
 * Jemuril
 * Kolrathanin, Clangeddin's Hearth's dwarf who attempted too flush kobolds out of Undermountain's sewers in 1370 DR.
 * Urkantor, a member of Clangeddin's Hearth circa 1370 DR.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Descent to Undermountain