The breeze carried echoes of battered metal along the winding cliff sides and mesas of the Northwind Cairn. Unending passages had been chiseled into the rock walls and lofty rooms were excavated branching deeper into the mountains. Eagles swooped around the stone pillars on the external walls of the passages and cylindrical compartments were carved into the rock for the birds to open and deliver messages to and from distant kingdoms. The Empires of the Stoneskin had splintered after countless wars with neighboring races had fractured the unity of Dwarven preservation. Factions like the Barkbeards of Eltenwood, siding with the gnarled Wildermen and mossy elves of the Ael Tribes, or the Flamespeakers, taking refuge with the elemental harbingers of the Ashen Conquest, did not seek communication with their kin and maintained a hostile disposition to any outside their caste. The True Iron Clan and Whitemane Clan continued the proud traditions of the Stoutkin and maintained the castes of the Old World and managed to mitigate diplomatic situations with non-Dwarven races. The Bronzegears were a younger clan, formed after the splintering of the Empires, and were exiled deeper into Northwind when the Yjagtari Beastmen ravaged the Human holding of Fife and its many sovereign village-states. Originally, the Bronzegears were engineers and scholars sent by the larger clans to assist the “lesser” races with their technologies in exchange for a pact of isolation. Dwarves were commonplace in Human kingdoms and assistants to Elders and Starseers. Some sellswords and guards of Magistars, Dwarven wizards and sigil-carvers, accompanied the engineers to ensure any Human harassers or nationalists would stay out of the work of the Dwarves.
Due to the hasty retreat from Fife, Clan Bronzegear had no formal monarchs or Upper Caste to rule them. Instead the most senior engineer, Hamellock Phorsten, took lead of the wanderers and began excavation of the Northwind Mountains. Nearly a decade had passed since the Fall of Fife and the Dwarves managed relative obscurity from their enemies while maintaining a stable connection to allies to the northeast through Humans that escaped along with the Dwarves and scattered associates of the engineers. Mert Graveltongue had been the first Dwarf to attempt to coax the eagles of the pass into sending out summons to neighboring kingdoms. As the health of Chief Engineer Phorsten waned from Tunnel Cough, a poorly named disease acquired by the subterranean dwelling clans due to exposure to primal giblocks and their vile magics, the time had come for a new leader to ensure the continued survival of the Bronzegears. While it seemed appropriate for the next most senior engineer to take up his mantle, the Dwarves were uneasy at the prospect of Era Emberheart, the daughter of the disavowed Ashkra Emberheart, serving as their leader. Beyond this, many of the engineers came from clans without Matrons and had never viewed the worth of a woman as more than a scholarly equal.
The Council of Four Kingdoms was forming within the innermost chamber of the Northwind Cairn. Today was the first day that leaders from outside the pass would brave the journey to discuss the future of the Bronzegears and offer support in exchange for their newest inventions. A light rain had carried in from the east and the outer halls were layered in a gritty mixture of sand and water. Calloused Dwarven feet smacked on the pooling rain mixture as an especially broad framed Dwarf barreled down the hallways.
His name was Bakru Tolbinir.