Tuwad-Dhûmankon was a dwarf hold in the Jade Mines known as the Second Domain, the home of Serpentbloom cultivation, culinary excellence and decadence. The Emerald Dwarves were known for their history from scrounging for food to developing the most elegant of culinary traditions which even the lower classes could indulge in. Their food source came mostly from the bountiful Serpentbloom found in the Serpentspine which thrived with the techniques of calcite irrigation and the use of Emerald Sunstones. They managed to feed much of the Eastern Serpentspine after the fall of the Serpent’s Vale, relieving the food shortages in the Jade Empire. Their tragic fall came in 908 BA as they failed to repel the powerful hobgoblin mages who tunnelled and overran the hold.
Culture and Customs[]
Following the tragic fall of Aul-Dwarov’s western government, the Eastern Serpentspine remained relatively intact, ruled from the Hold of Grônstunad. Despite avoiding the worst of the collapse, the eastern holds had suddenly lost their primary source of food with the west. To stave off imminent starvation, the Emerald Dwarves utilised every edible scrap, every fungus bulb, and every dreadful beast’s carcass. It was along this path of deprivation that Tuwad-Dhûmankon developed a unique branch of the culinary arts, born of asceticism and continuously improved upon until the exotic tastes and textures of the surface could be perfectly mimicked with locally–sourced ingredients.
The fine line between the masses and nobility held true in the pristine hold, however the elegantly refined yet robustly simple culinary traditions of Tuwad-Dhûmankon have brought into being a well-fed lower class who indulge in the uncommon pleasures of life. full bellies, cultivated palates, and decadent bliss. The nobility of Rahen could only look on in envy as the common Emerald Dwarf consumed mouth-watering dishes unheard of on the surface. Even in the turbulent times of the fall of Aul-Dwarov did the Emerald Dwarves enjoy their blissful ignorance, enjoying their pleasures in a time of war and devastation. The culinary sports, though exclusive to the top chefs of the hold, were regularly held in the form of entertainment for foreign diplomats and emissaries, to whom the products of the tournament are often offered as a form of hospitality. It was in this way that talented chefs achieved fame, fortune, and favour throughout both the Eastern Serpentspine and parts of Rahen.
Farming anything other than fungus and Serpentbloom on a large scale in the Serpentspine requires an extremely specific set of circumstances to be feasible in any capacity. Despite the relative abundance provided by the northwestern caverns, Serpentspine agriculture is barely enough to feed a single hold, let alone an entire empire. Relying on the natural membrane of porous calcite that conveniently lines the ceiling of much of the western Jade Mines helped alleviate their problems of no access to natural groundwater in enough quantity to facilitate large-scale crop irrigation. This, combined with the Emerald Sunstones often utilised, allowed the Emerald Dwarves to cultivate a myriad of surface crops that provided better yields, and more importantly, better tastes than the typical Serpentbloom.
With the many great dwarven clans all across the Dwarovar, each bore iconic heraldries to represent their house and accomplishments of their ancestors. The majority of designs and heraldries came from artisans of Tuwad-Dhûmankon who relished creating a myriad of extravagant patterns for the nobility of their hold and the richest clans of Aul-Dwarov. From banners which decorated large swathes of every hold to the garments of nobles and soldiers, the designs of the Emerald Dwarves spun far and wide. In the most devastating period of monstrous invasions in the Dwarovar, the standards of all the surviving clans would still remain, displaying the old clans and their legacy, with their promise to fight to the last dwarf and protect their way of life.
History[]
Under the Jade Empire[]
The Great Gardens of Tuwad-Dhûmankon[]
With the loss of the Serpent's Vale, the food imports to the eastern holds had ceased, vastly reducing the amount of available food. Individual holds had made efforts to increase their own food production in order to compensate, but the variety in the dwarven diet was still quite underwhelming compared to the days of Aul-Dwarov. In order to try and remedy this, High King Vrorri V ordered a grand project to expand the gardens of Tuwad-Dhûmankon in 3987 BA, in order to produce vast amounts of Serpentbloom of all kinds. The expansion took centuries, and over time the amount of available food would come close to the time of Aul-Dwarov, and more varied. Because of this, the cooks of Tuwad-Dhûmankon would become experts at their craft, and highly sought after in the other eastern holds.
Fall of the Jade Empire[]
Chaos in the Jade Mines[]
As the jade army reached Ovdal-az-Ân and started to dismantle the fortifications of the besieging goblins, the hobgoblin armies from Rahen launched an assault on Grônstunad from the south in 2470 BA. The alarm was raised, and messages were sent to the other holds in the Jade mines and to the expeditionary force in the Tree of Stone.
With the attack from the south commencing, the goblins and hobgoblins of the Jade Mines also initiated their attacks, and shut off the access routes from the east and west towards Grônstunad in 2469 BA. The Jade Mines were in virtually the same situation as the Tree of Stone now, with all access between holds nearly impossible.
Failed Relief of the Jade Mines[]
A messenger returned from Tuwad-Dhûmankon over the surface, informing the jade army of the dire situation in the Jade Mines. Dourban Brightbrow ordered his forces to prepare for a surface journey towards Grônstunad, however, when king Grongnir of Hul-az Krakazol heard this, he laughed in his face and called it the cowardly route. Wounded in his pride, Dourban ordered his troops to instead move through the Dwarovrod in 2466 BA. As they attempted to move through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines, they were ambushed by a large force of goblins and hobgoblins, in what eventually turned into a long siege as the jade army dug itself into a defensive position in the tunnel.
The jade army made one final attempt to push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2463 BA, but were slain to the last. Hearing of this, Grimka believed this to be the moment to strike, and ordered all the clans to go on the offensive again, launching direct attacks on the holds of the Tree of Stone yet again.
Reconnection with Tuwad-Dhûmankon[]
With the hobgoblins and goblins disunited with infighting in the Jade Mines, the dwarves of Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol organised an expedition to try and push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2143 BA, to find out whether Tuwad-Dhûmankon had survived the fall of the Jade Empire. They reclaimed the Dwarovrod with relative ease, and were elated to find Tuwad-Dhûmankon surviving and thriving. The expected assault from the hobgoblins had never come, and the great food gardens had easily sustained their population.
The Drizdahvad[]
The Proclamation[]
Grôzumdihr, Hul-az-Krakazol and Tuwad-Dhûmankon agreed to the three shields proclamation, or Drizdahvad in 2135 BA, promising that they will all cooperate in coming to the others’ defence in case of an attack and keeping the supply routes between their holds over the Dwarovrod safe from raiders. In order to safeguard the supply line between Tuwad-Dhûmankon and Hul-az-Krakazol, both ends of the tunad were fortified in 2100 BA, to ensure that no goblins or hobgoblins could move between the Jade Mines and the Tree of stone. The Drizdahvad ensured a long lasting survival of the holds for over a millennia, allowing them to make use of the now fairly reliable surface trade networks that the humans of Rahen and Bulwar had established, with Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol re-establishing contact with the holds of the west by 1102 BA.
Shakuin's Siege[]
It would be in the 920s BA that the warring hobgoblin clans of the Jade Mines and Shamakhadi hills coalesced into a united confederation the size of which had not been seen since the destruction of Grônstunad some millennia and a half prior. Their leader was a mighty shaman, the Mage-Chief Shakuin, the Iron Spider. She and her generals organised the disparate clans of the depths and surface, the long-darkened jade mines and the high mountain peaks, and set out to conquer the ancient foes of the hobgoblins. On the surface her tribes clashed with the newly formed Rahenraj, but in the tunnels of the Dwarovar they set their eyes on the last remaining hold in the Jade Mines - Tuwad-Dhûmankon, beginning the siege.
Arriving at the gates, while Shakuin's warbands clashed with the forces of the garden hold starting in 918 BA, her real efforts to seize the hold began quietly, for the hobgoblins knew that the dwarves could not be defeated on their home terrain with direct assaults. The siege began in 913 BA, a slow constriction of the tunnels and raids against outlying communication posts. The Tunad was too fortified to assault directly, as was the garden hold itself, but there were countless miles of tunnels abutting the roads from there to Tuwad-Dhûmankon, and slowly, one by one, these tunnels came under the control of the hobgoblins. The dwarves did not at first realise this was occurring - after all, why would they suspect such behaviour, when their fights against the warbands were proceeding well in the north.
All the while, goblin miners were put to work pincushioning fortifications progressively closer to the central hold, and soon enough clashes between hobgoblins and dwarves were becoming a regular matter. But Shakuin was careful not to let her advance on the hold be known, and ordered her forces to pull back strategically whenever the dwarves rallied in substantial numbers, maintaining the appearance of grinding stalemate. But her scouts studied the dwarven defences and communications networks, learning their secrets, and encroached ever closer to the hold. In this way, she began to bury Tuwad-Dhûmankon for almost three years before anything was suspected to be amiss.
The siege became apparent to the kings of Tuwad-Dhûmankon when Shakuin made her power play - after years of preparation, her warbands descended on three critical communication hubs that connected Tuwad-Dhûmankon with Hul-az-Krakazol and seized them. But rather than destroy them, Shakuin set her warriors to maintaining communications with the remainder of the Drizdahvad as if nothing were amiss, and Hul-az-Krakazol did not initially suspect anything was wrong, for Shakuin’s warriors had learned the dwarven communications schemes in their long quiet encirclement of Tuwad-Dhûmankon. Serpentbloom shipments were sent from the hobgoblins' own meagre farms, maintaining the illusion that all was right with the northern hold.
Fall of Tuwad-Dhûmankon[]
Marshalling her forces for a major push Shakuin began her true attacks on the hold and its fortifications in 910 BA, attempting to tunnel in and force the gates, wiping out the last isolated pockets of dwarves beyond the gates of the hold in the process. The siege proceeded for eight months, Tuwad-Dhûmankon desperately attempting to send messages to Hul-az-Krakazol and Grôzumdihr, before the other holds of the Drizdahvad suspected anything was wrong. When the scale of the problem finally became apparent to the Amethyst and Peridot Dwarves, they rallied their own armies and began to march, but Tuwad-Dhûmankon was already failing, breaches in the lower levels of the hold seeing heavy fighting. The Amethyst and Peridot forces reached the Tunad crossing in the early days of 908 BA and immediately encountered stiff resistance as they attempted to push on and relieve their beleaguered brothers.
The hobgoblins had left the dwarven fortifications they seized mostly intact and did not flee in the face of dwarven discipline, but stood their ground and fought fiercely to hold against their foes. Such bravery on the part of goblinoids was unexpected, and slowed the timetable of the relief forces. By the waning days of 908 BA, Tuwad-Dhûmankon was in dire straits, its stores of weapons and building materials running low, the relief army still months away. All the food in the world was not enough to save a hold so perforated by an enemy army, and the situation appeared untenable. Three breakout attempts were attempted, with some escaping each time, but most of the warriors and civilians that attempted to flee fell with each sally. Some few reached the army, but the royal line of Tuwad-Dhûmankon was not among them.
Finally, on the last day of 908 BA, Tuwad-Dhûmankon's main gates were shattered and the army of Shakuin entered the city. It is said that the combined Drizdahvad relief effort could see the shining lights of the hold going dark one by one as the hobgoblins took the palace, the gardens, and the villas from the few who remained in the hold, and that the few Emerald Dwarves who escaped wept as their home was lost to them.