The Great Orc War changed how everyone survived.
For the dwarves, when it was over, it meant reopening their great gates. Their homes were never a single kingdom. They were strongholds and fastnesses, linked by binding oaths, exquisite craftsmanship, and the long habit of keeping their bargains.
This Chronicle outlines the dwarven realms, how the guilds hold them together, and why the Guild Accords matter to the Circle in the present age. To understand this, we must first explore the foundations of the dwarven world beneath the mountains
The Realms Beneath the Mountains
Exactly when and where dwarves first arose remains uncertain, even to their own lore-keepers. Many legends place their earliest home somewhere in the east, but whatever the truth, their spread was swift. Dwarven fastnesses can be found wherever there are good sources of metal, and when the first elven armies marched north, they found established dwarven holds already in place.
Dwarven realms are defined by what they are built around: veins of metal, forges, stone roads, sealed gates, and the social machinery that keeps all of this functioning without constant central rule.
A hold is not only a fortress. It is a living engine of craft, exchange, and obligation, and one hold matters to the story of the human kingdoms more than any other. The largest dwarven settlement the Circle reliably knows lies north of Ardenfell, a place settled before the elves. When the Elves withdrew and Ardenfell rose in its place, the dwarven presence did not vanish. It drew closer and, to this day, still shapes the flow of craft and trade that reach the human crowns.
The Bedrock Is Contract
The bedrock of dwarven culture is the bargain. Pride and self-reliance run so deep that admitting weakness is considered shameful. Instead, dwarves enter into contracts.
They argue over contracts regularly. They dispute terms, boundaries, and interpretations, yet the agreement itself continues even while the parties are in dispute. That pragmatism exists to avoid the alternative, namely breach.
To outsiders, the dwarven fear of breach can seem extreme. Within a hold, it is understood as a matter of survival. A domain built on shared labour cannot afford a culture in which promises are optional.
This principle of contract reveals the origins of one of the most important unifying forces among the dwarves, the Guild Accords.
The Guild Accords
The Guild Accords are the network of long-standing bargains that bind holds, guilds, and kindreds into predictable cooperation. They set expectations that do not depend on affection, and they hold even when relationships sour.
In practice, the Accords govern three specific contract terms that matter to everyone, including the Human Kingdoms and the Elves:
- Who is entitled to trade and under what terms
- Who owes defence duties, and when those duties are called
- What happens when a contract is threatened, broken, or disputed
Outsiders often misunderstand dwarven unity. It is not political. It is contractual. When the Accords call, the response is not a matter of enthusiasm. It is a matter of oath. When the Accords call, the answer is not to debate. It is mobilisation.
Dwarves at War
The dwarves do not enter into battle for show. They go into battle because an obligation has been called in.
Most holds do not maintain a standing army; they maintain a system. Gate duty, patrol rotations, escort strength, and emergency musters are set by guild contract. A smith does not become a soldier because a lord demands they go to war. A smith becomes a soldier because the forge has a duty, and that duty is typically older than its living members.
When conflict comes, the first dwarves to answer are rarely the grandest. They are the appointed levy of a guild, turning up in work-worn kit still kept to a standard. Wealthy guilds field ordered warriors with matching shields and reliable armour. Poorer guilds field stubborn groups wearing patched mail and inherited plates.
Dwarven war is defined by three habits.
First, they defend points that matter. Gatehouses, choke roads, bridges cut into rock, and the mouths of tunnels. Dwarves do not measure ground by acreage. They measure it by whether it controls movement.
Second, they fight with resolve. Their lines are built to hold and grind. Shields lock. Axes and hammers do not flash for show; they bite. They do not waste strength on pursuit unless it is part of the contract.
Third, they bring their craft to the fight. Stakes, braces, barriers, fieldworks, and repairs appear where other armies rely on courage alone. Dwarven warhosts fortify quickly, maintain discipline under pressure, and treat logistics as a weapon. They arrive with tools as well as blades, because a broken wheel and a blocked road can decide a campaign as surely as a slain commander.
Command in a dwarven host is not always held by a noble. More often than not, it is duty-led. Guild masters, foremen, and appointed wardens act as commanders because they already hold authority over those who march. Orders are obeyed not because of a leader’s charisma, but because a dwarf understands what it means to be bound to a task.
This is also where dwarven magic reveals its character. Earth magic is treated as a craft, practical, regulated, and wary of excess. Dwarven mages are often accompanied by constructed mageguard, not as an ornament but as an indication of their attitude to risk. Magic is useful. Magic is dangerous. However, a dwarf does not rely on it without safeguards.
When dwarves take the field in the Age of Fractured Crowns, the Circle takes notice. If the Accords have been invoked, they will arrive. If a gate duty is sworn, they will hold it. If a contract is breached, they will enforce its terms. Their conflicts are not stories of conquest. They are about defending their obligations.
King Valthor and the Burden of Oaths
Dwarven kingship does not resemble the absolute monarchies of other realms. King Valthor of Starayafjell is first presented as a judge and keeper of dwarven law, whose authority is felt most strongly when oaths are threatened or a crisis demands a response.
When he takes the field, it signals that the threat is grave enough to call upon the full strength of the guilds. His presence is not merely tactical but symbolic, a rallying point for the alliance of the guilds.
This is dwarven leadership in its purest form: the oath made visible.
The Dwarves Among the Seven Crowns
For a people so proud of self-reliance, dwarves have become a common sight across the lands. In the present age, dwarves settle within all seven human crowns, not as conquered subjects but as guildfolk, craftspeople, quarry crews, road builders, and caravan hands. They arrive where labour and contracts draw them, and they stay where they are allowed.
They also establish strongholds. Not castles in the human style, but guild halls, fortified yards, and secure depots positioned to move goods reliably by wagon. Their placement is strategic. A guild does not build where it looks impressive. It builds where it shortens journeys, protects cargo, and offers its services.
This is the human face of dwarven influence. A bridge was repaired in Ardenfell, a toll road surfaced in Velgard, and a quay wall reinforced in Marhold. Stone shaping and road craft are not given as charity but as contracts.
The Merchants’ Guild Strongholds and Wagon Roads
The Merchant Guild network makes the Dwarven presence impossible to ignore. The guild maintains halls near the entrance of each dwarven hold and has heavily fortified camps on the outskirts of major human towns and cities, where it keeps permanent bases. Caravans travel between these outposts in a constant rotation, departing on a schedule measured in weeks rather than on whim.
At the heart of a caravan are iron-bound oak wagons, pulled by stout ponies and defended from screened positions. Cargo holds are locked and sealed by a blend of craft and magic, and opened only within guild outposts under senior oversight. The caravans’ secrecy is part of their defence. Even caravan members often do not know what they are transporting; however, all wagons are defended with the same contract-bound ferocity.
This is why dwarven strongholds matter to the Seven Crowns. They are not merely warehouses. They are nodes of reliability in an unpredictable world.
Earth Magic and the Ironclad Mageguard
Dwarven magic is earth magic. It is rooted in stone and metal, shaped by their craft, and handled with caution, like any tool that can both harm and help.
At the same time, many dwarven warriors remain suspicious of magic. That suspicion has produced one of the most distinctive sights in dwarven warfare: constructed mageguard, magical automata of stone and metal that, unlike their flesh-and-blood counterparts, protect their makers in battle.
The Dwarves and the Circle in the Present Age
While the dwarves do not seek to dominate the present age, they shape it nonetheless.
They do so through roads and trade, through contracts that outlast rulers, and through the certainty that a dwarven bargain will be honoured.
The Guild Accords are therefore not mere background detail. They are among the structural supports of the present age.
On the Tabletop
Dwarves in Warhost ought to feel like a force of duty, not a roaming army seeking conquest.
Create scenarios that emphasise their character:
- Caravan Under Seal: Escort a Merchants’ Guild wagon across the table. The defenders may not know what it contains, but the enemy believes the cargo will decide a wider dispute.
- Breach of Contract: A crown breaks a supply agreement in desperation. Guild levies arrive to enforce the terms. Victory is about proof and restitution, not annihilation.
- Gate Duty: A guild rotation has been called early during a skirmish. Hold a gate line against an incursion long enough for relief to arrive.
- Smuggled Strength: A caravan escort is far larger than expected. One player’s force includes troops disguised as guards. The other must identify and stop the opponents’ true objective before the wagon reaches the outpost.
- Earth and Iron: An earth mage must hold a key point on the tabletop while Ironclad Mageguard and guild troops prevent the mage from being isolated or overwhelmed by the enemy.
Remember, when you place dwarves on the table, their choices should be deliberate. They do not fight for show. They fight because an oath has been invoked, and the Accords demand an answer.
What is written here is remembered.
