Genmide
“Some look to Genmide and see what Chordin would have become without innovation. The Dwarves look the Genmide and see what Chordin would have become without corruption.” ~ Jothan Blackkard, Gazetteer

Geography
With the Jedda Syne range to the north, the Addarack range to the west and the Genmide mountains to the south, Genmide is the perfect home for dwarves and not much else. The vast valley between the mountain ranges is a dry, cold badland all the way to the sea, sporting only short, scrubby grass and stands of sparse evergreens.

The mountains themselves sport a thick cloak of pines and spruces that hide their rocky façade from view, capped with jagged and icy peaks. The land above is mostly wild, given over to the savage races and spirit beasts as the dwarves only care for what is underground.

History
When the Gold Dragon Nation created their first servitor race from gnomish and human stock, they did not expect them to be so willful. The new dwarves dug the mines in the Addarack range, as directed, but once they had dug themselves a comfortable home and made certain that they were familiar with underground agriculture, they sealed the tunnels leading outside and left their draconic progenitors cursing their creation.

When the dwarves finally reemerged into the world, draconic control had been broken and the Vishnari Empire was being formed. Out of mutual distrust, the dwarves and the rest of demi-humanity had little to do with each other until the Hailene War of Ascension was upon them both. The dwarves allied with the Vishnari and the savage nation of goblinoids and minotaurs living on the surface of Genmide.

The Alliance did not last much past the defeat of the hailene. While the dwarves felt they could tolerate the humans not living on the surface, the martial tradition of the minotaurs posed to large a threat. And so the dwarves of Genmide turned on their one time allies, driving them into the warring nation of Minde Forme. The dwarves then closed their borders again, only periodically emerging to trade ore for magic items.

In the decades following the Ashing of the Green, however, a cultural shift in Genmide has forced the nation to work more closely with its neighbors, as two sides within seem to be headed for civil war.

Culture
A cultural schism is taking place within the dwarf lands, a minor war brewing between three factions with differing visions for the future of dwarf-kind.

The elders, so called ‘old-timers’ wish to continue the xenophobic and isolationist ways of the past, only trading the precious handiworks and ore the nation turn out as they require things from outside national borders. They also dislike the very idea of non-dwarves living on the surface above them and wish to move to expel them from Genmide.

Another faction headed by the Steamjack community want to modernize Genmide and make it part of the world community. They envision opening up the vast, underground dwarven halls to the rest of demi-humanity and teaching non-dwarves the dwarven ways of forging and steam craft. They also have plans for coming together with the surface dwellers to form a single, unified Genmidi government.

Lastly, young dwarves are becoming largely more jaded with Genmidi life as a whole and leaving in droves to find new lives and adventure in the rest of the world. With them, they take not only manpower, but much needed genetic diversity away from the dwarven halls. These ‘younglings’ worry the elders even more than the Steamjacks, because their desire for maintaining the status quo requires young dwarves to uphold it.

Given their origins, dwarves have historically been a secular people. In more recent years, with a practicing cleric of Dey taking the throne, religion among the dwarves is more open. Many worship Dey as a goddess of Duty and Justicar as a scion of Community. The Steamjacks also pay heavy homage to Denaii as a god of mechanical perfection.

Though it is frowned upon, a handful of dragon cults have sprung up, fueled by rebellious youths, recklessly tearing down the old ways of shunning anything draconic.

Industry
The three mountain ranges that outline Genmide’s borders are a rich source of iron ore and mithral. The dwarves refine these ores and use them to create masterpieces of armor and weapon design. The dwarven marvels in metal and stonework are highly prized throughout the continent.

The Steamjacks also possess contracts with several organizations to built steamwork devices, especially their armored steam-crawler vehicles.

Government
King Roth Stoneeater of Clan Addarack Prime (Male dwarf Fighter 4/Cleric of Dey 3) is the undisputed king of Genmide. With his exhaustive council of advisers, he manages all the day to day workings of the nation, the movements of its armies and relations between the clans.

Regional control belongs to the heads of the dwarven clans that live there, while human and half-elven settlements are left to autonomy. This is not true for the ogre tribes that call the southern Genmide range home. They are forced to pay tribute to the dwarves and defer to them, lest they suffer the fate of the minotaurs who were forced to flee Genmide.

All other races are similarly disrespected by the xenophobic government, where the law of the land says that no non-dwarf may ever enter a structure on dwarven land.

Organizations and Individuals of Note
The Dwarven Clans
Six distinct bloodlines of dwarves were created by the dragons, using varying amounts of human and gnomish blood. While centuries of interbreeding have erased these distinctions, the six clans still exist as political entities, bearing names of their homes and their position (mostly a relic of the draconic referenced to their bloodlines). These clans are; Addarack Prime, Addarack Segunda, Genmide, Glacius Prime, Glacius Segundus, Iskarr

Steamjacks
The Steamjacks are an organization of modernized dwarves based in Genmide that specialize in combining traditional dwarven expertise in stone and metal working with the relatively new sciences of machination and alchemy in addition to arcane magic.

The accomplishments of the Steamjacks has gained them economic sway in the dwarves court and has triggered a kind of renaissance in the more progressive dwarven settlements. Chief among these breakthroughs is the advent of the crawler, a Steamjack designed, heavily armored ground transport powered by mystic steam engines.

The creation and subsequent sale of crawlers has gained the Steamjacks valuable contacts with the Historical Society of Kinos, the Great Houses of Chordin, and numerous Adventurers’ guilds including many affiliated with the church of Dey. Steamjack enclaves have sprung up all over Genmide and small brokerage houses run by the organization have appeared in large cities across the continent.

Madra Warchild (Female dwarf Rogue 5) currently heads the Steamjacks and is very active in involving the group in Genmidi politics.

Major Settlements
The Hall of Addarack (City 23,000)
Beneath the stone face of the Addarack Range, carved, layer by layer by generations of dwarves over the past three thousand years is their greatest city; the Hall of Addarack. A labyrinthine lattice of stone tunnels, no non-dwarf is ever allowed to set foot within these hallowed halls.

The air is always hot, warmed by the combined heat of the lava tubes that power the deepest mystic forges and the magical steam created by the Steamjacks. The Hall is the seat of dwarven society, the place where all young dwarves of Genmide are sent to learn a trade and become a functioning part of society.

Winterborn (Town 3,000)
The mercantile face of the Hall of Addarack, Winterborn is a ton built in the valley below the eastern entrance of the city. Here, non-dwarves are more or less welcome – as long as they’ve come to trade.

Fort Mechanus (Hamlet 600)
The headquarters and central academy of the Steamjacks is a walled fortress on the southern slopes of the Genmide Mountains. Fort Mechanus was meticulously designed to skirt Genmidi law so as to include humans as students and faculty, featuring intricate arches and overhangs to serve as halls and room without technically being inside a structure

Locations of Note
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Encounters
All manner of mountain creatures prowl the mountains of Genmide, including big cats, giant eagles, ground sloth, rocs, and grey renders and spirit beast forms of the same. Purple worms and other hearty beasts subsist on herds of reindeer in the valley as do small,nomadic communities of ogres and kobolds.

In farthest, dark reaches of the dwarven halls, where the dwarves have breached the Seams, cloakers, darkmantles, gricks and the occasional drow scout can be found.