Kalaza

Kalaza was the first great city of the Dwarves.

Early Kalaza

Kalaza was founded circa -34,845 in the Second Age.

It started as the simple central location to the vast tunnels of mines throughout the Mountain. A few clans were actually quite skilled with the crafting of lumber and ore together, and they began to create simple buildings under the guidance of their Dwarven Overking, Khazi Khazar, to facilitate the trading of silvers, gems, ores, weapons and armor from one clan to the next. (The dwarves who possessed this skill of construction would later fall under the leadership of the Ragnak Clan.)

Another cavern was created within the earth, where the dwarves would gather to both share stories of the day's events (and strange things found), as well as to offer protection in the case of an orc invasion. The great hall of Kalaza was said to be 15 dwarves in height, with pillars so wide, it took six dwarves to reach around the circumference.

Communication through the tunnels connected to Kalaza was accomplished through the use of a massive iron bell (tholtinco) and steel horn (vardaras). A single strike of the bell woke the dwarves in the morning, and a single blast of the horn announced that it was time to return. Three blasts of the horn signaled danger, and three strikes of the bell answered the call to arms.

The Great Emigration

The dwarves returning from the Undead War, circa -15,184 in the Second Age, carried with them the Red Rot, a plague that wiped out half the population of Kalaza within weeks. To save the remaining dwarves, Kalaza was quarantined, all of the tunnels leading to it forcibly collapsed, and the entrance was buried under an avalanche. Those dwarves who were unaffected by the plague left Kalaza forever and dispersed into far-flung mountain mines, or struck out for new lands on the surface.

A simple rune marks the entrance to Kalaza, a rune that only a dwarven miner would recognize, one that means simply, "Farewell."