Darkwell

Darkwell is home to the mountain dwarves who have lived in the area for thousands of years. They have a long standing history and have gone through many phases of religious and attitude shifts through those years. They are currently lead by King Verkel Darkback who has been a ruler for over 120 years.

Architecture
Darkwell's main city is a spawling above and underground cityscape with the latest technological advances being put to use. It features mechanical and magnetic locks, giant automatic steel doors, automated hammering and smelting for smiths, ovens for food, and automated farmlands on timers. Many of these fantastic machines are powered by Essence and function for long periods of time, only rarely needing repairs.

The Dragon War
Dwarves long ago used to be devout followers of Bahamut and swore of uphold his tenants. They built large stone structures and praised the dragon's name. They regarded the Talons of Justice as saviors. Their disposition changed when they were attacked by a large raging dragon Jallah, who attacked the city relentlessly and demanded gold. Not long after each completed rebuilding of the city, Jallah would return to destroy it and demand gold.

The dwarves became fed up with this menace and sent an army of heroes to destroy her. The army was slain without much of a chance to even damage the powerful dragon. Desperate for an answer, the city's greatest smiths used pieces of their most prized possession, the Orb of Might, Mithril, and Gold to create a powerful metal known as Gildenium. With tools made of this priceless new metal, they tuned it to be particularly strong against dragons.

A hero, Bronze Darkback (in a full set of Gildenium armor, shield, and sword) ran forward to attack the dragon and slayed it slowly and with much of a fight. Before the dragon Jallah could die, she cursed his entire bloodline with her final curse, the Curse of Earthsfire.

And from then on, the dwarven people of Darkwell were vulnerable to fire and the uncomfortable heat in their volcanic tunnels.

The Earthslaves
The dwarves, frustrated that they cold no longer mine their precious resources in the volcanic caves began capturing outsiders and forcing them to work in the mines without any contact outside the city. When others came looking for the missing people, they too were forced into slavery.

The dwarven military engineers grew mad and paranoid over the repeated visits and preemptively built a magma weapon to attack any army who might try to attack them. But no such army ever came. They then devised a plan of ensure their revenge against the dragons. Scouts had reported a secret city of dragons somewhere in the nearby Flint Jungle region. They started work on The Glasser, and prepared to flood the entirety of Flint Jungle with lava. After years of oppression and slavery, their plans were halted when The Fellowship of the Spoon convinced them that the destruction of their enemy is not worth the destruction of the rest of the region's people. The humans presented a treaty to the dwarves and after much discussion, agreed to sign it.