The Heir of Kayolin

NINE

A proclamation to the dwarf citizens of Garnet Thax:

This is the word of Regar Smashfingers, once Governor and soon-to-be King of Kayolin:

My brave and intrepid dwarves, we know that our nation has faced a multitude of challenges arising from the current state of the world-challenges that require swift and decisive action. As your leader, we publicly resolve to face these obstacles with determination. So long as our people, the dwarves of Kayolin, remain united and resolute, we shall know triumph and prosperity, and we will deliver to our enemies an unending diet of defeat, devastation, and destruction.

Good citizens of Kayolin, you are loyal dwarves, steadfast strivers in the mines and warrens of our great nation. Likewise, we on the throne steadfastly strive to rule you with a gentle hand and a visionary heart. For the better part of two decades, our appointed role, traditional through the long centuries of our history, has been that of your Governor, with authority drawn from the High King on his throne in distant Thorbardin. This is a legacy dating back to our founding as a colony of that great nation, when we were dependent upon Thorbardin for support, for military protection, and for a steady maintenance of trade.

However, it has become apparent to us, and to all perceptive citizens of our nation, that two Great Truths have emerged over the last centuries. In conjunction, these Truths require a new approach to Kayolin’s government and, indeed, to our relations with the rest of Krynn.

The First Great Truth has been long in the making, but it can no longer be denied. We are forced to conclude that the dwarves of Kayolin stand alone as the representatives of our race, the mountain dwarves, in our large and significant corner of Krynn. We must face the determination that the other lands of our kinfolk, our brave cousins who dwell under all the great mountains of Ansalon, have been subjugated, conquered, or even quite possibly exterminated by threats that remain as yet unknown to us. Be the enemy elves or dragons, men or minotaurs, ogres or giants, we know not. But we must acknowledge that those other nations of dwarfkind have been silenced, and it is quite likely that we in Kayolin stand alone as survivors among the mountain dwarves.

Consider that communication from the nation of our One True King, the High Thane of Thorbardin, on his throne beneath Cloudseeker Peak in the Kharolis Mountains, has utterly ceased. No word, no message of any kind, has been received from Thorbardin in more than ten years. Because we knew that Thorbardin, as indeed all of the lands around the High Kharolis, was wracked terribly by the onslaught of Chaos and subsequently endured a violent and consuming civil war, it is clear that we can no longer rely upon any rulership, or governance, from that once mighty realm.

It is a melancholy fact but true: We in Kayolin must accept the possibility that we stand alone. There can be no expectation of guidance, solace, aid, or alliance with the ancient home of our ancestors. This First Truth does not mean our doom, not in any sense, but it presents a challenge to our heritage and demands a new way of ruling ourselves and of seeking solutions to our problems.

The Second Great Truth has also been long in the making, though the current dire situation is a more recent development. By its nature, this Truth is a direct threat to our prosperity, our happiness, and indeed, to our very survival. It is a Truth understood, to some extent, by every child of Kayolin, for it ties into the ancestral enemy of our homeland. But now, my loyal citizens, that enemy presents a menace to our prosperity, our safety, and even our very survival.

Every child of Kayolin learns of the horax at a very young age. No horror is so pervasive, so relentless, and so long standing as this scourge that dates to the earliest days of our nation’s founding. The voracious bugs, each two or three times the size of a full-grown dwarf, number in their teeming thousands and form a horde that dwells in the very depths of the world, far beneath our deepest delvings. Ever hungry, soulless, and aggressive, they have been a menace to Kayolin since our nation’s establishment, more than a thousand years ago. All know that, throughout most of that time, the horax have been held at bay by dwarven ingenuity, engineering, and courage. Some eight hundred years ago, our ancestors took it upon themselves to insulate dwarfkind from the horax. Our predecessors built a series of walls, barricades, and traps, ensuring that the horax could not penetrate into the city proper, walling them off and securing them in their fetid, deeply buried hives.

For hundreds of years, those measures have been successful, and long was the menace held at bay. As your ruler, however, it is our sad duty to report that in recent years the horax have again emerged from their dark lairs to raid aggressively into the under-levels of Kayolin. No more do these lethal arachnids hide in the dark recesses, fearing dwarf steel and dwarf courage. Whether they are driven by hunger, wickedness, or some inherent hive-lust, that we do not know and will not ever comprehend; they have begun to swarm from their dens to raid our stores and warrens, attack our delvings, and to capture and slay our miners.

In the last two years, these attacks have progressed to an unprecedented level. More than a hundred Kayolin dwarves have been dragged into horax lairs, wrapped in webbing, poisoned with lethal venom, and consumed to fuel the swarm’s insatiable appetites. Purely villainous, eternally hungry, the giant bugs form a threat to the survival of our nation equal to any menace in the history of dwarfkind.

Throughout our existence, of course, we dwarves have faced a multitude of enemies. Be they dragons or giants, ogres or goblins, we have battled for our place in the world. Usually we have been aided in these fights by steadfast allies, such as the hill dwarves or humans-even, during moments of great desperation, by the elves or the metallic dragons. We have prevailed in great wars, epic conflicts that have shaped the very history of Krynn.

Yet unlike such previous threats, the horax are a threat to our nation alone. Their dens lie beneath Kayolin, offering neither access nor egress to any other part of the world. Thus, we cannot request, nor should we expect, the warriors of any other land to come to our aid in this contest.

In the face of the Two Great Truths, we hereby decree the following steps, to be carved upon the scrollstones as law from this day forward:

I) We dwarves of Kayolin withdraw our fealty from the unknown, possibly nonexsistent, monarch in distant Thorbardin. No longer am I, henceforth known as ‘we,’ Regar Smashfingers, a Governor, in service to that king. From this moment on, we who rule Kayolin shall be called King in our own right.

Indeed, my loyal dwarves, it is time for Kayolin to stand as a kingdom upon its own, centered around our great capital of Garnet Thax, secure in our mountain fastness against the schemes and encroachments of human, elf, goblin, and ogre. In the person of ourself, Regar Smashfingers, we humbly accept this historical burden, and pledge to strive with never-ending diligence and perseverance to see that the honor, prosperity, and safety of Kayolin is upheld.

The governorship has been a long tradition, an indelible part of our nation’s history, but it is time for that tradition to be relegated to the past, where it belongs. New times call for new measures, and the most important new measure is the coronation of our own King. Reorx himself wills that Kayolin be subject to no foreign lord, no external master. We are a kingdom, and we desire-we need! — a King.

The tradition of Kayolin’s rulership is deeply seated, of course, ingrained into our history. We may recall tales told by our elders, learned by them as youngsters: when the first settlers established our home in Garnet Thax, under these mountains of Kharolis, they brought with them a legendary artifact. This was a silver torc, emblazoned with fabulous gems. The Torc of the Forge, the great talisman of Dwarf Kings, was created by Reorx himself as a sign of his favor, and it was brought to Kayolin in the early days of our nation.

And then, tragically and mysteriously, it was lost into the depths of the world. All of Kayolin’s dwarves have learned that for more than a thousand years this torc, this symbol of a king’s throne, remained missing. Without the great talisman, Kayolin survived as a governor’s seat, lacking the need-and the symbol-of kingship. But now, in the hour of our greatest need, the artifact of our ancient regime would prove to be a timely and propitious find.

And indeed, this is such a moment in our history, for it is our great pleasure to announce that the Torc of the Forge has been located at last, discovered by Lord Alakar Heelspur’s eldest son, Baracan, in the depths of the world. The torc came to Kayolin with the first wave of migrations and was lost when the deep delvings of our city were excavated. As was foretold in the first of the atrium, the torc has come forth when most needed, to signal the regal blessings of our god.

Baracan Heelspur has returned the torc to its rightful place in Garnet Thax. As proof of our god’s blessing, the stones that encrust the ring of the torc are even now being incorporated into a splendid crown, a symbolic headpiece that will serve as visual proof of our reign’s rightful status.

It is our expectation that the citizens of Kayolin will react to our ascendancy with joy, with celebration, and a continuation of the steadfast loyalty that is such a treasured component of the dwarf character. A series of banquets, culminating in the coronation itself, shall mark the first full month of the new year as a period of unprecedented celebration in our long history.

Of course, we must acknowledge the existence of certain reactionary and criminal elements, wretched dwarves who will stand in the way of progress and act only to obstruct at every turn. It is because of this danger that we shall have the second decree inscribed upon the scrollstones:

II) From this day forward, until such time as the king declares the crisis to be past, a state of emergency shall exist in Kayolin. This unique and dangerous time requires firm steps and resolute determination to overcome the many perils before us. Specifically, the emergency condition shall result in the following procedures:

1. Lord Alakar Heelspur is appointed to a new position: Director of Loyalty and Enforcement. He shall be empowered to recruit honorable dwarves into his ranks and shall be awarded with a large scope of powers. His League of Enforcers shall act as his agents and have the authority vested in our own royal name. Furthermore, he shall be tasked with identifying the aforementioned reactionary and criminal elements within the kingdom, arresting those undesirables, and obtaining confessions from same. Suitable punishment for malfeasance shall be determined on a case-by-case basis; these disciplinary decisions remain the provenance of ourself, the king.

2. The full might of Kayolin shall be mobilized to counter the threat of the vicious horax. All members of militia companies shall assemble under their local officers and stand by for orders. Operations against the horrible bug creatures shall commence at the earliest opportunity. Recalcitrant citizens who attempt to shirk their military duties will be conscripted and will form the first rank of the battle formations.

3. The activities of the New Regime, including the celebrations associated with the coronation, and the imminent campaign against the horax shall be funded through a selective tax. A one-hundred-steel surcharge is hereby established on the activities of any hill dwarf seeking to do business in Kayolin. Any dwarf of any race who desires to conduct business beyond the gates of our nation shall pay a ten percent tariff, with value to be established by the Director of Loyalty and Enforcement, on any goods transported into or out of Kayolin. Finally, the small communities of Theiwar, Klar, and Daewar who live comfortably with the safety of our mountain fastness, shall each furnish one thousand steel from each neighborhood quarter as a small token of gratitude for the protection provided them by the Hylar and Daergar might that is the backbone of Kayolin’s greatness.

Let the words of the king be inscribed into the scrollstones! From this day forth, the decree of Regar Smashfingers is the law of Kayolin!