Dareth, also known as the Ice Kingdom, was an ancient kingdom of the dwarves, located beneath the Icerim Mountains in northeastern Faerûn.[1]
Description[]
Dareth was located in the Icerim Mountains that divided the Great Glacier from the Great Ice Sea[1], northeast of Narfell and southeast of Sossal.[4]
The Sign of the Realm was a row of three peaks with a stone hammer, head to the right, horizontal above them.[5]
History[]
The subterranean lands were first settled in −2642 DR,[6] by the dwarves of Clan Dareth, under the leadership of King Orloebar Snowbeard. The king and his kin had forsaken his house, and set out north from their worked-out dwarfhold in the mountains southwest of the Old Empires, finally settling in the Bloodstone Lands, north of Rashemen.[1]
The dwarves found few gems within their new home, but rather ore-rich veins that continued under the Great Glacier of northern Faerûn. In the following years, they came to trade with humans that traveled to their realm, in the area where the waymeet of Hoarbridge would later be established.[1] Among these trading partners was the Rashemi clan led by the warrior Soss, who first opened ties with the dwarves in −2320 DR.[7]
In the year −343 DR, Dareth was attacked by white dragons and their bestial servant creatures from Hoarfaern after breaking into the dragon's caverns unleashing a brutal war between the realms.[1] In the end the dwarfs were forced to retreat into the deepest caverns beneath Toril.[8] In the spring months, the dwarves no longer made their trek to Hoarbridge to trade with the human merchants, and the few humans who made the trek north to find the dwarves only found white dragons on the wing.[2] Over a decade later, in −329 DR, Clan Shattered Shield from Citadel Sundbarr fled their home due to the approach of dwarves from Citadel Felbarr rumored to be infected with the slaying slumber disease. Clan Shattered Shield made the arduous journey across the High Ice, through the Bloodstone Lands to Dareth.[5][9]
The Shattered Shield dwarves arrived in −327 DR after two years of travel, and soon learned why the Sossrim no longer traded with the Dareth dwarves, and the mountains in which the kingdom lay had been dubbed "the Peaks of Cold Death".[9] The white dragons had established a roost within the peaks, and kept the Dareth dwarves from leaving their tunnels. Clan Shattered Shield besieged the dragon's thralls and managed to rescue their trapped kin. The two groups of dwarves fled north to an isolated peak, which they named Mount Sundabar in honor of the former home of their saviors.[5] They formed a new clanhold beneath the mountain, and elected Embryn Shattered Shield as their king, who in turn left his clan name behind to take the name of Dareth.[9]
For four years the dwarfs toiled to build their new home in Mount Sundabar, when in −323 DR the vengeful dragons of Hoarfaern commenced a mighty attack upon them, employing mighty magical items of unknown elder origin, they shattered the dwarven defenses and laid waste to the nascent hold.[5][9]. Even so the surviving dwarves fought on, hunting and slaying dragons whenever they could reach them, becoming little more than skulking attackers roaming over the Mountains of lost Dareth, until no dragon was safe in its lair. In the end the bones of dwarves and dragons littered the mountain range. In −318 DR a final climactic confrontation was made on the broad mountaintop now known as Heroes' Height, where the last of the Darethian dwarves fell.[5]
With both Dareth and Hoarfaern sundered, humans soon made the way into the lands to hunt and cut lumber in the rich lands that later became Armridge and Sossal. The caverns of Dareth were explored and plundered of valuables left by the dwarves, yet monster attacks made the mines too dangerous to work for the bands of explorers who stumbled upon them.[5]
Appendix[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Ed Greenwood (October 1990). Dwarves Deep. (TSR, Inc.), p. 54. ISBN 0-88038-880-3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ed Greenwood (October 1990). Dwarves Deep. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 54–55. ISBN 0-88038-880-3.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 31, 49. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Karen Wynn Fonstad (August 1990). The Forgotten Realms Atlas. (TSR, Inc), p. 7. ISBN 978-0880388573.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Ed Greenwood (October 1990). Dwarves Deep. (TSR, Inc.), p. 55. ISBN 0-88038-880-3.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 31. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 47. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 49. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
Connections[]
Dwarven Valley • Eartheart • Earthfast • Far Hills • Fireforges • Gracklstugh
Graskynar • Harheldur • Iltkazar • Ironmaster • Khaelud • Mithral Hall • Qarlondrar • Raskuldin • Underwatch
Former Cities
Alatorin • Ammarindar • Ascore • Citadel Sundbarr • Citadel Yaunoroth • Dorn's Deep • Gauntlgrym • Halls of the Hammer
Hrakhamar • Kanaglym • Rrinnoroth • Sarbreen • Splendarrmornn • Tyar-Besil • Tzindylspar • Underhome
Fallen Realms
Ammarindar • Besilmer • Bhaerynden • Dareth • Deep Kingdom • Delzoun
Gharraghaur • Haunghdannar • Hollowbold • Ironstar • Oghrann • Roldilar • Sarphil
Shanatar (Barakuir • Drakkalor • Holorarar • Korolnor • Torglor • Ultoksamrin • Xothaerin) • Thunderholme