Editing Adventures in the Distal Provinces: Gazetteer (section)

==Dwarven Settlements==

''These small underground fortresses are all that remains of a people who once lived in mighty cities beneath the earth''

The Dwarves once had vast underground cities supported by endless tracts of farmland on the surface. The combined attacks of Orcs and the Empire devastated their crops, which starved the Dwarf holds, and wiped out the largest of them. The later rebellion of the Unorthodox Sorcerers resulted in powerful wizards taking over some of these abandoned underground fortresses and conquering more of the smaller ones. Most of these were sealed by the Imperial legions, but a determined adventurer can find their way in if clever enough.

Today, only six underground Dwarf settlements remain, and they are far removed from the glory of their ancestors’ caverns. The Dwarf holdings today are technically under the rule of whatever state surrounds them. But these remaining Dwarf holds are the most well-defended and most inaccessible ones left, so they are de facto independent. Yet they still dependent on trade with the humans for some food--and even with Orcs when desperate.