Kar-Dur
Open neighbourhoods
Rimekin, Shadar-kai, Goliath, and deep-craft peoples carry winter stores and passage watches together; see City Diasporas.
A layered capital stretching from the mountain's exterior to the summit to the sealed Old Dur many kilometers below. Here, depth is a measure of both geography and nobility.
City ID
Function: capital city, mountain pass, mine and ancient road inspection. Population: 2.5–3.4 million; roughly a third live in lower layers not visible at the same time. Peoples: Mountain Dwarves, Hill Dwarves, ancient dwarf lineages; Svirfneblin, Gnome, Warforged, Duergar, Human, and Firbolg minorities. Faith: Living Whole, First Echo, and Threshold-Ancestors traditions.
Layers and institutions
The Stone Crown is defence, Uppergate trade, the Foundry Line production, Silent Galleries law and graves, and Blind Mines are sealed deep past. The hereditary Crown shares power with Hearth Councils and the technically sovereign Deep Council.
Crisis
Heir Doran, lost seventeen years ago, has returned without ageing. His old duties passed to another heir, and his seals may belong to the Sixth or Ninth Vault.
Location in Avarra
| Field | Record |
|---|---|
| Continent | Ilyr-Khaz |
| Region | The inner mountain wall of Ice Rifts and Short Summer |
| Physical site | A multi-level hollow descending from the mountain face above the fjords into Old Dur |
| Main approaches | Surface caravan ramps; freight lifts, heat galleries, and sealed ancient ways within |
| Nearby ties | Nivarra’s coastal line, mountain-pass villages, and ancient routes descending to the Hollow Countries |
Kar-Dur’s gates open to Ilyr-Khaz’s short summer, but most of the city belongs to the memory of stone rather than climate. Supplies from fjord ports remain in the upper levels; farther down, the city loses contact with foreign trade and approaches the older geography of Old Dur’s sealed ways.
The mountain as a city
Kar-Dur is a linked body of galleries, domes, shafts, and carved valleys. Upper levels hold surface gates, defence, and trade; inner levels homes, workshops, courts, and squares; lower levels mines, water, graves, and ancient routes. Depth is status but not simple wealth: diplomats live high, old families by graves, smiths near heat veins, and the poor in newer unstable galleries. Stone cannot be owned: only a registered hollow may be used. New space requires stone-listeners, air/water calculations, Deep Council permission, Hearth Council allocation, and an oath on the first support stone.
Uppergate filters strangers through three defensive gates. Stonechorus is the acoustic throne and council dome: laws are sung in exact tones, because a law not heard alike cannot bind alike. Nine separate Vaults protect treasury, lineages, treaties, mine maps, ancient-road keys, technical secrets, reserves, relics, and a sealed record. Foundry heat warms baths, mushroom gardens, homes, dryers, and water boilers; every product bears master, hearth, and year. The Water Spine is neither crown property nor war spoil, while Underfungus Gardens, Ash Vein, Silent Galleries, and Blind Mines sustain the city’s food, labour, memory, and danger.
Life, law, and the succession crisis
Shift Hammers replace daylight. Homes are inherited or assigned use-rights, not bought; waste becomes fungi, recycled metal, fill, settled water, and mortar. Air officers test vents, and blocking one is war on the city. Children learn collapse sounds, bad air, water marks, and lost-gallery signs; apprenticeship is civic identity, and a masterpiece must be a durable public benefit rather than merely a beautiful object.
Hearth Councils govern production, housing, safety, tax, and markets. The Deep Council can halt a decision that threatens the city physically. Oath Courts enforce contracts, inherited duties, and maker liability: a bridge failure decades later can still bind the master’s hearth. The Living Whole treats the mountain as a body of stone, water, heat, life, and memory. Crown Hearths back Doran, Deep Masters demand inquiry, Oathkeepers oppose reopening sealed routes, Openers seek ancient-road trade, Warforged demand citizenship, and the younger sibling’s circle claims the moral right earned by governing in Doran’s absence.
| Settlement | Resource | Tendency |
|---|---|---|
| Ironroot | Wood, resin, surface ore | Crown Hearths |
| Seven Vents | Air system | Deep Masters |
| Silver Cistern | Water | Neutral |
| Hammerplain | Food | Reformist |
| Foundry Station | Ore processing | Warforged movement |
| Winter Rift | Pass defence | Neutral |
| Copper Steps | Caravan transfer | Openers |
| Broken Anvil | Ancient-road research | Divided |