Jernashall

Jernashall

(City)

Nation

Tar Khadurrm

Region

Five Kings Range

Size

Ruins; destroyed 3980 AR

Demographics

Dwarves

Source: Dwarves of Golarion, pg(s). 5 (1E)
Highhelm, pg(s). 14–15 (2E)

Jernashall was the preeminent city of the dwarven kingdom of Tar Khadurrm, and was located in the southern reaches of the Five Kings Range.

History

Founding and tenure as capital

Jernashall was founded in the volcano of Torag's Crag in 3312 AR by the dwarven hero Khadon the Mighty. It was built in the center of a sprawling network of miles-long mine shafts that connected the city to many surrounding caverns, which served as outposts and fortresses. In 3332 AR, the engineers of Jernashall completed the first magmafall, one of the greatest feats of engineering of its time, in the city's center.

Jernashall became important enough for the nations of Cheliax and Isger to petition the dwarves to help them build the nearby surface city of Raseri Kanton for the purposes of trade and diplomacy. They agreed, and the sister-city was completed in 3451 AR. In that same year, Khaddon died and his son Sidrik the Handsome ascended to the throne of Tar Khadurrm. The military outpost of Kazhlik was also constructed on the volcano's eastern slopes to keep watch for bandits and aggressive creatures.

In 3493 AR, Sidrik declared Jernashall to be the new capital of Tar Khadurrm, replacing Highhelm as the most important dwarven city. For 500 years the importance and prosperity of Jernashall grew, and it became the center of dwarven life in the Five Kings Range. By the 3900s, however, whispers began to circulate that Torag's Crag might be set to erupt. The dwarves ignored these warnings, convinced that their ancestors' engineering skills would protect them from any natural threat.

The Rending

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In 3980 AR, the human wizard Ilgreth enthralled dragons with the orb of golden dragonkind but was thwarted by a group of adventurers. The gold dragon Mengkare destroyed the orb, which inadvertently triggered a powerful eruption of Torag's Crag.

Although battered and shaken, Jernashall remained standing. The dwarves shrugged off the event, but unbeknownst to them the initial earthquake had weakened the city's foundations. Another eruption occurred the following day, and the devastation was immense. The great magmafall at the city's center spewed a river of lava that spilled throughout the city. Its sister city of Raseri Kanton also fell into the earth. Only a handful of buildings in Jernashall's uppermost reaches remained intact, and nearly every resident in both settlements were quickly killed.

The event became know as the Rending and marked the decline of Tar Khadurrm. The eruption so destroyed Torag's Crag that it became known as Droskar's Crag. In response to this, King Sidrik III—who had ascended to the throne in 3919 AR—abandoned Jernashall and made Highhelm the capital once more. The sealed ruins eventually became populated with monsters. The fortress of Kazhlik was also heavily damaged, though not to the extent of Jernashall and Raseri Kanton.

The Resplendent Bureaucracy of the lands of Druma quickly provided aid to, and housed refugees of, the catastrophe, which served to mend diplomatic slights accrued with Tar Khadurrm over the years.

As ruins

Structure

The gates to Jernashall remain fused open at the base of Droskar's Crag by the Rending's magma, solidified into a black wave that attracts nesting flame drakes.

A maze-like series of unpredictably twisting corridors composes the uppermost layer of the ruins, and remained visited as memorial halls for the dwarves killed in the city's destruction. It also contains a repository of records recovered from the city during its survivors' evacuation that could not be carried further.

Only a few other narrow passages from near the Crag's peak lead thousands of feet down into passages connected to sealed and relatively intact sections of Jernashall to the southwest, with glacial runoff draining into its stale, dank interiors.

Moschabbatt's lair

A clutch of magma dragons laired beneath Jernashall in the heart of Torag's Crag, the eruption of which destroyed most of the lair and forced the dragons to flee. Moschabbatt was the first of these dragons to return and reclaimed the ruined lair, learning in the process that the eruption had opened a path from the lair to Jernashall. The dragon explored the ruined city and claimed many cultural and magical artifacts for its hoard, and eventually became fascinated with dwarven culture and craftmanship.

Moschabbatt's first direct contact with the dwarves occurred when a secret team of explorers sent by the dwarven Theocrat Ordrik Talhrik—who ruled the Five Kings Mountains in the 44th and 45th centuries AR—ventured to Jernashall's ruins. The team was led by Bravitsor Broac, who carried the powerful artifact known as the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. The dragon killed the adventurers, but the axe survived both the dragon's breath and the magma that drowned their twitching bodies. The artifact is the key to a lost golden age of dwarven culture and became the most precious artifact in Moschabbatt's hoard.

Legacy

The famed sculpture Hearts of Stone, created in 4080 AR by Telda Hammereye, was crafted from silver and iron recovered from Jernashall's ruins. It is inlaid with the names of clans destroyed by the Rending around a pool of quickiron that evokes the land itself bleeding in sympathy.

References

Paizo published several Pathfinder Society scenarios about Jernashall and its environs: Enter the Pallid Peak, Delve the Pallid Depths, and the special Expedition Into Pallid Peril.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.