Kerse Accord

The treaty known as the Kerse Accord was signed in 2332 AR in Kerse, and both ended the 700-year-long civil war (the 19th Five Kings Wars) between the five dwarven kingdoms in the Five Kings Mountains (Gardadth, Saggorak, Doggadth, Grakodan, and Taggoret) and established Druma's independence.✝

History

Promise of Kalistrade

The dissolution of Tar Taargadth in 1551 AR eventually led to the start of the Five Kings Wars among its successors. The civil war forced heavy taxation of the remnant kingdoms' territories, including Druma, an agricultural province controlled in part by the dwarven kingdom of Saggorak.

Saggorak's taxation demands were so steep that Druma's human inhabitants faced constant impoverishment, and within two years its people rebelled in an act later known as the Fifth Drumish Rebellion.

While the rebellion was quelled, it fueled long-simmering secessionist movements, including adherents of the Prophecies of Kalistrade, a non-deific faith that promoted the accumulation of wealth. A coalition of 14 Kalistocrats built fortunes on supplying the various dwarven factions in their civil war, and in 1580 AR secretly founded a joint political trust that they christened the Promise of Kalistrade.

Under the guise of dwarven investors, the Promise collectively purchased lands and assets from dwarven kingdoms desperate to fund their war efforts. This accelerated after the Promise purchased and re-established the port city of Detmer, which quickly became a thriving trade and naval port, and the Promise began also purchasing the war debts accumulated by the five kingdoms.

Sixth Drumish Rebellion

After Taldor conquered Isger in 2133 AR, its defeated but battle-hardened Kellid residents fled into Druma. United by both their ethnicity and their suffering under imperialism, Isgeri and Druman Kellids led by the warrior Jelheg founded the Meritocracy of Jelheg in Rhuvasi, launching the Sixth Drumish Rebellion.

The dwarven nation of Taggoret defeated the Meritocracy in 2142 AR, resulting in the disbanded armies turning to banditry and inspiring the creation of the Mercenary League as a force of bodyguards.

Debt, peace, and independence

Over the course of one week in the fall of 2331 AR, the Promise of Kalistrade dispatched letters to each of the dwarven kings to collect their centuries of war debts. The dwarven kingdoms were exhausted and impoverished from the near-constant war; they initially refused to pay but faced united militias assembled by the Kalistocrats as well as the services of the Mercenary League.

Rather than war, the Kalistocrats invited dwarven representatives to Kerse in 2332 AR and offered to forgive most of the debt and favorably refinance the rest, in exchange for the dwarven nations granting Druma its independence. The dwarves assented, signed the treaty, and recognized the sovereign nation of Druma, as did Taldor.

Legacy

Newly independent Druma convened a meeting of representatives to establish a new government, which the Prophets of Kalistrade quickly dominated. The Burning Glove Riots forced changes to the government, and several decades passed under the relatively brief but damaging rule of a human ethnocentric government composed of Jelhegi dissidents, but the Kalistocrats have largely ruled since in a millenium-long era of prosperity through extensive trade.

Towering sculptures of the five kings who signed the Accord were carved into the highest peaks of the mountains to commemorate the event. As a result, Highhelm became a location of prominence and hosted a permanent council formed from delegates of the five kingdoms.

Peace between the five dwarven kingdoms lasted until 2497 AR, when all of Gardadth—except for the city of Highhelm—fell to an orc onslaught.