| The Taraks |
| After the collapse of the Tellurian civilization some 7,000 years ago, the Dwarves tried to maintain order and peace in Arda. They had built three mighty fortresses in the north, known as the Taraks, and from here they continued to enforce Tellurian Law, and attempted to set up a common free market system using a common currency. The Dwarven Crown is still the most universally respected currency, although other races and empires have introduced their own. The Dwarves were not well suited to the demands of maintaining law and order throughout all Arda, as they demanded that cases and suits be brought before them in the Halls of Justice in their Taraks in the north. Their unwillingness to travel to other areas and mediate disputes soon led to wars and strife between the races. Rather than address this, the Dwarves seemed not to care, insisting that cases be brought before their courts at the Hall of Justice or else they were not legitimate grievances. The Taraks became increasingly irrelevant as the races resorted more often to force to settle issues, and the Dwarves refused to get involved unless a matter involved their own finaces and trade.
They were content in their isolation until the power vacuum in Arda was filled by the sinister Dragon Lords of Dor-Gotha. Before long, dwarven trade was disrupted, and caravans that did not pay tribute would be raided, and often slaughtered. The dwarves' isolation and pride was now their downfall; the hordes of the Dor-Gotha laid seige to the Taraks. For two hundred and fifty years, the armies of orcs and goblins surrounded the dwarf fortresses, their watch-fires burning day and night, their foul tunnels burrowing all through the surrounding lands. One by one, the Taraks fell to their enemies, the dwarves either staying behind to fight to the death or fleeing to live in shame in exile in the northern wastes or forests. |
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