100 - 200 A.E, Rise of an Empire
Uthein prospered under the tyrannical yet stable reign of Hodgrar Greymane.
His word was law, and dissent was met with the head of a bronze axe in most cases; the emerging Priestdom of the Mountain God threatened him only briefly during the year 107 A.E. In response to the Preists' rising influence with the common folk, King Greymane simply outlawed them and their practice. Hundreds of arrests and subsequent executions took place in short order, sparking a period of riots that were likewise met with further bloodshed.
However by 109 A.E, the Preistdom had been driven from the streets of Uthein, though continued a meagre existence in every back alley of every street and in every cellar of every hovel. The Crown stood uncontested, and thus the first King of Uthein was free to carry on his rule without intereferene from domestic entities.
The army was Greymane's strength, and into the army he poured the Kingdom's coffers. Bronze production peaked during this period, and weapon-craft soon replaced the peoples' passions for art. It is estimated that by 115 A.E, Uthein had a standing army of over ten thousand Dwarves, with enough bronze to supply them with simple body armour and an array of weapons.
120 A.E saw a Promethean incursion into the strip of grassland land that the Dwarves taken from them decades previous; the Prometheans had no real intention of drawing themselves into a protracted conflict however, and they removed themselves before Uthein amassed an army to evict them. However for the years that followed, minor skirmishes would periodically erupt between the two races and the grasslands would not see peace again until the dawn of the third century.
King Hodgrar Greymane's death in 145 A.E saw a rapid change in the Kingdom's foreign and domestic policies, with the ascension of Crown Prince Danak Greymane. Danak was said to be an educated and gentle Dwarf in his junior years, and at the age of 25, the crown of the Kingdom weighed heavily on his head. Hodgrar's former generals and trusted advisers each took their turn in twisting Danak's will to their own, but he was wise enough to see through most of it. He dismissed them all, one by one, until in 150 A.E his was the only voice in the Kingdom's business.
Over the next ten years, King Danak Greymane would repeal much of his father's brutal - yet perhaps necessary - actions. The Preistdom of the Mountain God was lifted from persecution, after Danak sought assurances that there would be no organised resistance to his rule. Churches found their beginnings here, and were regulated by state-owned Bishops. Religious scriptures were controversially modified during this period, to better suit the running of the Kingdom by a single man.
King Danak Greymane also expanded Uthein's primitive mining operations. Zinc and copper mines were established in the immediate bounds of Uthein, and existing facilities received investment from the Crown. Uthein's army was restructured at this time, and reduced in size in an effort to mitigate the burden it was placing on the economy.
Perhaps King Danak Greymane's most famous contribution to our history however, was his introduction of the Coin - a method of payment and of measuring wealth, that would come to slowly replace the age-old bartering system that had existed since the Prometheans occupied the region. These coins were initially made from bronze.
In 160 A.E, Danak's eldest son, Rokdar, petetioned his father to launch an expedition northwards. The Crown Prince's aims were to locate further ore stock piles, and to establish settlements away from the areas that the Kingdom contested with the Prometheans. The King conceded to his son's wishes, and so Rokdar went forth with a few thousand of his kin.
Between 160 and 180 A.E, Uthein underwent a massive territorial expansion as Rokdar's expedition claimed large swathes of the continent's central mountains. Dozens of mines were established, and with them, settlements. The success of this expedition flooded Uthein with an abundance of bronze, and also included a significant haul of silver. The people of Uthein prospered, and wealth flowed abundantly through the Kingdom from north to south.
In 182 A.E, Rokdar's settlers came into contact with the Kobolds of Scale Home. The creatures were an unfamiliar and somewhat frightful sight to the Dwarves, and hostilities broke out almost immediately. Border raids were conducted on both sides, often with little prisoners left alive to tell the tales of what had happened.
Before outright war could befall the two nations, Rokdar intervened in matters personally, and approached then nearest Kobold settlement under a flag of truce. Though he struggled to understand his northern neighbours, he was able to communicate his regret for the recent hostilities, and established a mutual non-aggression pact with the Kobolds.
On hearing of Rokdar's unsanctioned diplomatic mission, King Greymane ordered his son home, and started to plan for an invasion of Scale Home. Fortunately, Rokdar was able to appeal to his father's softer side, and talked him down from waging war with a peoples that had shown no wish to do the same. Instead, Rokdar was appointed as Ambassador to Scale Home, and entrusted with a mission to learn of the Kobolds, and to strengthen trade ties between the two Kingdoms.
During 180-90, Uthein shipped tonnes of ores to Scale Home, in return for badly needed food stocks that Rokdar's expansion had depleted. Small groups of Dwarven smiths, though primitive in their methods, made their way to Scale Home to teach the Kobolds of how to fashion bronze into all kinds of wares; however, King Greymane stopped short in allowing for the Kobolds to be taught how to craft bronze in the first place.
In the Summer of 191, disaster befell Uthein in the form of a Promethean invasion. By now, Tall Ape Grishartd Gritig had asended to power over the Promethean Empire. He was as blood thirsty as they come, and fiercely proud of his peoples' past - almost deludedly so. He saw the Dwarven conquests that had taken place a century ago as an affront to Promethea, and thanks to a brief lull in the Plague, now had the men he needed to put together a War Host.
The invasion was swift, and the Dwarves were crushed in the grasslands; the Prometheans poured into the mountains, and despite all the tactical advantages afforded to the Dwarves, they proved almost impossible to stop. King Greymane marched forth with his army of bronze-clad warriors, five thousand in all, and met Gritig in battle before the gates of Uthein.
King Greymane was slaughtered, along with his army, and the Prometheans burned Uthein to the ground. All of the mines and other settlements in the immediate area were likewise obliterated, and every Dwarf man, woman and child were slaughtered to the last.
Crown Prince Rokdar arrived a week after the fall of Uthein with his own army of some ten-thousand citizen soldiers, who carried whatever they could. Rokdar clashed with Gritig sixty miles north of Uthein, and though the Dwarves suffered appalling losses, they successfully forced the Prometheans to halt their advance until the following summer.
During the lull in fighting, Rokdar ascended to the throne-in-exile, and approached the Kobolds for assistance. In a private meeting with the Kobold Queen, he secured military assistance in return for a formal oath of fealty from the Dwarven King, and his peoples, to the Kobolds.
Over the course of the autumn and winter of 191 A.E, the Dwarves went about arming their new allies the best they could. The two races merged in the drill yards, exchanging tactics and ideas, and striving to fight as a coherent army despite their physical differences. By the Spring of 192 A.E, the Alliance of the Mountains (as it was known), was ready to avenge the death of Rokdar's father.
The Kobold-Dwarf Host marched south, where they were met with token resistance. Promethean settlements and mining outposts were systematically dismantled and their occupants usually slaughtered by overzealous Dwarves. Eventually, the host came upon the ruins of Uthein, where they found themselves staring at Gritig's renewed invasion force.
Ten thousand Dwarves, side by side with ten thousand Kobolds, crashed into the Prometheans. The Ape-People fought with their characteristic ferocity, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Alliance of the Mountains - however, once again, numbers won the day. The Prometheans were driven back, having sustained losses they could ill afford, and Gritig was forced to abandon his campaign. He fled back to Promethea to raise another army, leaving the destroyed Dwarf homeland in his wake.
After retaking Uthein, King Rokdar Greymane met with the Kobold Queen to swear his peoples' eternal allegiance. However, the Queen refused, stating that as the Dwarves and Kobolds had fought and died together as equals, then equals they would be in life. The King agreed with her sentiment, and the Kingdom of Uthein merged with Scale Home to forge the world's second empire.
The Empire of Scalethein arose from the ashes of Uthein, and her plentiful warriors now looked southwards, where an Ape King agonized over the end of both his reign and his peoples.
Major Events of Uthein - 2nd Century
During this century, organised religion was first outlawed, but later legalised. The Priestdom of the Mountain God was heavily interfered with by the state, however, with many of its scriptures modified to better reflect the obeying of a King.
Technological: Bronze weapons and armour received special attention during this century, although no ground breaking innovations were made. Mining operations were invested in quite heavily, and saw large expansion; however, the method of extracting ore from the ground remains crude and little innovation has taken place.
Military: The Kingdom held a standing army for much of this century, until it was destroyed by the Promethean invasion of 192 A.E. After this time, a citizens-army reminiscent of the 1st century was employed.
Uthein was sacked by a Promethean invasion, prompting the Dwarves and Kobolds to form the Alliance of the Mountains - a military pact aimed at driving the Prometheans out of Dwarven heartland.
Following the establishment of the Scalethein Empire, Uthein's citizen-soldiers have merged with the armies of Scale Home.
Diplomacy Summary:Uthein came into contact with the Kobolds, and despite initial hostilities found common diplomatic ground.
Uthein shipped tonnes of ore to Scale Home in return for food.
After the Alliance victory at Uthein, the Kingdom merged with Scale Home to create the Scalethein Empire.
Government Changes:The Kingship remained in place until 192 A.E, where it was replaced by the Diarchy of the Scalethein Empire. (To be explored further in the Third Century).
Territorial Expansion:
The Scalethein Empire by Spring 192 A.E (Barring concessions from Neogreggory)
