Tuir Stonebeard

Tuir "Stonebeard", Blood of Helban was a dwarf ruler and Deep King of the dwarven kingdom of Roldilar in the Vast in north Faerûn in the 7 century DR.

Personality
Tuir was stoic and grim by nature, and slow to laugh. These traits earned him the nickname "Stonebeard". He feared and distrusted mages.

History
Tuir was a descendant of Helban, whom he honored in his name.

When the orc nation of Vastar, in the lands later known as the Vast, fell into civil war in the Year of Writhing Darkness, 572 DR, dwarves began to encroach from the west, spreading underground and applying increasing pressure on the orcs. Among these dwarves was Lord Tuir Stonebeard, who was determined to destroy Vastar and found his own kingdom.

Working with humans and elves, the dwarves secretly developed "orcslayer", a steel toxic to orcs. Lord Tuir Stonebeard requested over a thousand orcslayer weapons and Master Smith Fyrfar Smokebeard and High Old One Turbaern, together with the human mage Beldossan and the elven sorceress Aleratha Ilnatar worked hard over several years to forge and enchant them. Among these was the short sword Sarghathuld, forged in the Year of the Many Serpents, 605 DR, and given to the dwarven warrior Ulnorn.

In the Year of the Spellfire, 610 DR, the invading dwarves, armed with orcslayer weapons, toppled Vastar and slew Orc-King Grimmerfang at their capital, Mount Grimmerfang. The victorious dwarves claimed the surface lands for themselves and that same year Deep King Tuir Stonebeard founded the kingdom of Roldilar, the Realm of Glimmering Swords. Tuir placed his throne deep beneath Mount Grimmerfang and held court from there.

In the Year of the Costly Gift, 645 DR, the archmage Maskyr came to Mount Grimmerfang to seek audience with Deep King Tuir. He asked Tuir's price for a vale within the domain of Roldilar that he wished to make his home. The Roldilarren Court fell silent but Maskyr waited patiently, quietly leaning on his staff and meeting the king's gaze, as Tuir thought it over. Tuir did not want to yield any land to any human, particular wizards whom he distrusted, but he feared the archmage's power. At last, he made his offer: "The vale is yours, from rim to rim and beneath the grass as deep as four men stand upon each other's shoulders, so long as ye dig so as to remain within the valley's borders, upon one condition only. Pluck out thy right eye and give it to me, here and now, and the vale is thine." To the shock of all present, without hesitation, Maskyr did just that. Tuir respected Maskyr for the deed, having thought that no-one would ever do it. He kept the bargain and granted him the land. He also ordered that no dwarf trespass in the vale nor disturb the archmage. Maskyr then went and dwelled there, erecting Maskyr's Tower for his home.

Others followed, and this marked the beginning of permanent human settlement in the Vast. Their arrival prompted King Tuir to declare that humans would be allowed to come only so far into the mountains and no further, at a point marked by the town of King's Reach.

Roldilar enjoyed only about forty years of real peace under Deep King Tuir before it was engulfed by hordes of resurgent orcs in the Year of the Bloody Crown, 649 DR. Tuir led the dwarven armies against those of the orcs and goblins, but they were defeated at Viperstongue Ford over the River Vesper. Roldilar's defenses were broken, and the dwarves retreated to Mount Grimmerfang. This ended in the bloody, 20-day-long Battle of Deepfires beneath the mountain, and the fall of Roldilar, the Realm of Glimmering Swords in 649 DR.

Tuir was the last deep king whose dominion spread over the surface lands, and the last to be well-known there.