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The Old World

Dwarf Hold

Karaz-a-Karak, the Everpeak

Karaz-a-Karak, the Everpeak, is the mightiest and most ancient of all dwarf holds, unconquered throne of the High King and keeper of the great Book of Grudges.

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

Karaz-a-Karak, the Everpeak, is the greatest and most ancient of all the strongholds of the Dwarfen Mountain Holds, the capital from which the High King rules what remains of the once-vast dwarfen realm. Delved deep beneath the tallest peak of the World's Edge Mountains, it is a subterranean wonder of pillared halls, molten forges, and vaults heaped with the treasure of five thousand years.

Karaz-a-Karak means the Pinnacle of Eternity, and the name is no boast. While lesser holds have fallen one by one to goblins, skaven, and the slow grinding of the ages, the Everpeak has never been taken, its gates never broken. Its throne room is the seat of the High King, and within its most sacred vault rests the great Book of Grudges, in which every wrong done to the dwarfs is recorded for eventual vengeance.

The hold is a place of unmatched craft, where runesmiths forge weapons of enchanted gromril and artisans labour lifetimes over a single masterwork. Yet it is also a monument to melancholy, for the dwarfs are a dwindling people, and every empty hall echoes with the memory of grander days now lost to a hostile world. Great statues of the ancestor-gods line its deepest galleries, and the beards of its longbeards have grown long with the memory of a time when the dwarf empire spanned every mountain range beneath the sky, so that the High King who sits the throne bears the crushing weight of that lost dominion, and every grudge left unavenged sits heavier still upon his crowned brow.

The long, proud, and sorrowful tale of the Everpeak is inseparable from the dwarfen holds and their Book of Grudges. Karaz-a-Karak endures as the unbroken heart of a fading race, a fortress of stone and stubbornness that vows, grudge by grudge, that the dwarfs will never yield while a single hold yet stands.