The northern shield of Tarkhon: three Uline dwarf settlements in the Wurmspine Mountains between the empire and the orcish hordes of Hedroscobb. For centuries, the dwarves have held the passes. For decades now, they've wondered why they bother.
Position and Borders
Vogenfeld occupies a stretch of mountains at Tarkhon's northern frontier:
- North: The Wildwood and the orcish territories of Hedroscobb
- South: Nektuna and open land leading to Tarkhon proper
- East: The Wurn Mountains and Stone Men territory
- West: More mountains, eventually leading to Murth
The passes through these mountains are the only practical route for armies moving between Hedroscobb and Tarkhon.
Terrain and Climate
The surface is harsh alpine terrain: jagged peaks, narrow passes, treacherous in winter. Snow lies on the highest peaks year-round.
The dwarves don't live on the surface. They live in the mountains, in vast tunnel complexes carved over millennia, ventilated by the elaborate chain-operated air systems that give Uline dwarves their nickname.
The Three Settlements
Atlangsow — Western, largest (~5,000). Built into a mountain overlooking the main pass between Tarkhon and the Wildwood. The great gates have never fallen to enemy assault; the tunnels extend miles into the mountain, with forges, living quarters, and mushroom farms. The Council of Thanes meets here most often.
Kaisa — Central (~4,000). Kaisa's tunnels extend furthest north, with secret passages emerging in the Wildwood itself, allowing scouts to observe orc movements without exposure. Kaisa produces Vogenfeld's best scouts and most aggressive warriors.
Glashof — Eastern (~3,000). Controls the eastern approaches where the Vogenfeld range meets the Wurn Mountains. Glashof maintains uneasy contact with the Stone Men, neighboring mountain peoples who understand one another without being allies.
The Vogenfeld Pact
Five centuries ago the thane Vørgar met Tarkhon's envoys at the Pass of Oaths, the main route through the mountains beneath Atlangsow's gates, and bound Vogenfeld to the empire's northern defense in exchange for yearly tribute and a place of honor in its service. The bargain was cut into the rock of the pass rather than set on parchment, and the dwarves have kept it to the letter ever since. The terms and the bargaining behind them are the matter of the Vogenfeld Pact's own entry.
Along the pass run the monuments: walls of carved names, one for every dwarf killed holding the frontier the pact promised. The Council of Thanes orders them recut whenever frost softens the letters, so that the oldest names stay as legible as the newest. The dwarves remember what the bargain has cost them. Tarkhon has largely forgotten there was a bargain at all.
Relationship with Tarkhon
Vogenfeld still receives tribute from Tarkhetan, but the payments are a fraction of what they once were, delivered with contempt rather than gratitude. Young officials in Tarkhetan openly question why the empire pays "those mountain dwarves" at all.
Daily patrols into the Wildwood's edge watch for signs of orcish coordination among the six great tribal states to the north. These patrols are costly; dwarves die each year, and their names join the monuments. Tarkhon doesn't ask about the patrols. The question of how long Vogenfeld continues to honor an increasingly one-sided pact grows louder every year.
The wager runs wider than Tarkhon knows. The passes Vogenfeld holds are the northern shoulder of the Tarkhon Strait, the one gap through which all Middle Sea trade reaches the western ocean. Should the dwarves ever abandon the heights, Hedroscobb would gain a road south toward that strait's flank, and the whole inner-sea coast that lives on the toll-road below would find its trade threatened by an orc host none of those wealthy cities ever thought to pay for keeping out. The Middle Sea depends on dwarves it has never once met.
Keeping the north divided
The patrols do more than count orc banners. Watch the six tribal states long enough and a pattern shows itself: twice in living memory the orcs drew close to a general peace, and twice it came apart over a grievance that arrived at exactly the wrong moment. This is not luck. The dwarves of Kaisa, whose tunnels open in secret onto the Wildwood, have learned that a war is easiest to keep lit from the outside. A raiding party's route reaches the clan it meant to surprise a day early. A Hedroscobbi blade surfaces in Glivornaxi mud where the spear-guardians are certain to find it. The War of the Marshes grinds on over the Yugurbas Dyos algae. The Water War never settles the Contested Shore. And the Shazuihni come down on the Gray Orc each dry season, boars and all, for reasons that have nothing to do with any dwarf and everything to do with a feud Kaisa has taken quiet care never to let cool. The Council of Thanes states the logic without softening it. Six orc states at each other's throats cannot take the passes; six at peace would be over the Wurmspine in a single season. So the scouts go out, and come home fewer, and the Council cuts the new names into the wall and sends the next patrol north. They have long since stopped expecting Tarkhon to understand why.