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The Old World

Dwarf Hold

Karak Azul, the Hold of Iron

Karak Azul is a southern dwarf hold famed for the finest weaponsmiths in the world, forever besieged deep in the greenskin-haunted Worlds Edge Mountains.

Astrography

Altdorf, Capital of the EmpireAthel Loren, the Enchanted ForestAverheimBarak VarrBechafen, City of the MarshesCouronne, City of the GrailErengradHag Graef, the Dark CragHexoatl, City of the SunItzaKarak Azul, the Hold of IronKarak Eight PeaksKarak KadrinKaraz-a-Karak, the EverpeakKislev, the City of the Ice QueenLothernLustria, the Jungle ContinentMarienburgMiddenheim, the City of the White WolfMousillonNaggarondNaggaroth, the Land of ChillNehekhara, the Land of the DeadNuln, City of Iron and PowderParravon, City of the PeaksPraag, the Scarred CitySkavenblightSylvania, the Cursed ProvinceTalabheimTor Elyr, City of the LagoonsUlthuan, Isle of the High ElvesWolfenburgWurtbad, City of StirlandYvresse, the Misty IsleZhufbar, the Torrent GateZlatlan, the Fallen Temple-City

Karak Azul, the Hold of Iron, is one of the southernmost of the surviving dwarf holds, delved deep into the Worlds Edge Mountains where the peaks are richest in ore and darkest with peril. It is renowned above all other holds for the peerless quality of its weaponsmiths, whose blades and armour are prized by dwarf and man alike as the finest steel that mortal hands can forge.

A stubborn bastion of the Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Karak Azul owes its craft to the abundant iron of its mountains and to generations of smiths who have refined their art to a sacred discipline. Its forges burn without end, and its armouries are the envy of the dwarf realm, arming its warriors with weapons that can cleave through the thickest hide of their foes.

Yet the hold pays a bitter price for its isolation. Surrounded by greenskin tribes and gnawed at from below by the ratmen, Karak Azul has been ground down over the long centuries until only its uppermost levels remain in dwarf hands, its lower deeps lost to the teeming enemy. Its king wages an unrelenting war to reclaim what has been taken and to hold what remains, mustering the throng against endless waves of goblins and worse. Karak Azul endures through iron will and iron blades, a diminished but unbroken fastness that would sooner forge weapons to the last than yield its ancient halls.