Vaalar Nobility

The Royal Family: Crownhammer

• King Dalgrim Crownhammer
  • King Dalgrim is the seventh Crownhammer to sit upon the throne since his ancestor Talek Stormhammer had ascended to the throne nearly 1,900 years ago and became King Talek Crownhammer.
  • King Dalgrim is obsessed with the various devices and machines produced by the engineers and machinists, he is in love with his war machines and frequently travels to Cal Beron to attend their operations in the field, savoring each massive explosion that sends hobgoblin flying and scattering into the air.
• Queen Farora
  • Farora was a member of House Irontooth and the niece of Lord Deman. Her marriage to the king was a political marriage necessary to smooth over some bitter disagreements between Irontooth and the throne. She adores and dotes on her daughter Taeri and youngest son Argan, but has little to do with and no love to show for the twins Haril and Noril, who were birthed by the King's late consort, Ayld Kneebitter.
  • Of course there are many rumors that she had Ayld killed, because that's just how the Irontooth operate, lying, conspiring, greedy killers. Or that's the whispered opinion in the back of taverns.
• Princess Taeri
  • Daughter, oldest child and heir to the throne. Taeri is a political creature, always involved in the affairs of the throne, the other houses, the guilds - there is very little that goes on in the capitol that would be considered important that she has not been seen near. She adores her parents, and readily accepts that she will inherit the throne when her father passes. Moradin has deemed it so. It is her destiny. And she will be ready.
  • Taeri has many suitors. Many, many suitors. They are all her favorites and each believes that he has already won her heart and will be her King one day.
• Prince Haril
  • Twin middle son. Haril has sworn himself to Clangeddin. He is rarely ever seen in the capitol, preferring to remain in the field where he can cleave hobgoblin skulls open and revel in the glory of battle.
  • His wife is Kirith Hammersong, who is an acolyte of Haela Brightaxe and fights alongside him. They are both in the Steel Legion.
• Prince Noril
  • Twin middle son. Noril is an acolyte of Dugmaren. He is an engineer, specializing in the design and development of long range weapons. Many believe him to be the clear favorite of the King as the two share a passion for these devices and spend a great deal of time in proximity of one another.
  • Those who know much of anything about them know that this could not be farther from the truth. Noril loathes his father, blaming him and his awful Irontooth wife for the death of his mother and seeing his father as little more than a bloodthirsty and heartless warmonger who doesn't care who gets hurt in his pursuit of death and destruction.
• Prince Argan
  • Prince Argan is the youngest child. He is five years old.
  • The King brought the young prince to Cal Beron once, he enjoys boasting and telling the tale of how his small boy had single handedly slaughtered three dozen hobgoblins (when he let him pull the lever that set the massive canon array, the Pit Fiend, into motion).
  • Prince Argan likes goats. They sound funny and it makes him laugh.
• Lord Balil Crownhammer
  • King Dalgrim's younger brother and father of three sons.
  • His wife is Lady Dorais and his sons are the twins Daergrim and Stoergrim (aka Storick) and their younger brother Fargen in his 30's.
  • Lady Dorais is totes preggers with a fourth child on the way.
  • Lord Balil manages the Crownhammer Estate in Cal Darga.
  • He and the King appear together at important functions, but otherwise the two have very little to do with one another. Lord Balil has never had a stomach for warfare. His greatest passion is jewelcrafting and he can lose himself for hours at a time in his workshop as he tends to the most tedious and minute details of a project.
  • As a byproduct of this, Lady Dorais' jewelry is the envy of all the ladies of Nakaltia.
  • Including the Queen…who hates her.

Heads of the Seven Great Noble Households

• Lord Korenen Glitterbeard
  • Lord Glitterbeard has had six wives and fathered over a dozen children. He is a massive perfumed man who drapes himself in riches and finery.
  • He has the largest collection of pre-Wrath relics in Nakaltia and will occasionally put select choices on display for the common populace to view, paying scholars to attend and teach the attendees the history behind the displayed relics.
  • Conspiracy theorists believe him to be a follower of Abbathor, maybe even a Chosen. How does someone, especially someone like him, get SIX WIVES and all that wealth.
  • Lord Korenen and his family live in their massive estate that looms over the town of Cotha from its perch atop the Iron Crossroads station at the heart of the town. He loves to sit and take meals out on his balcony where he can watch the trains coming and going.
  • His family had been one of the three that had competed over the throne following the Wrath. The Glitterbeards bear a great deal of influence amongst the miners and craftsmen guilds.
  • Even though his ancestors had fought over the crown, Lord Korenen is a vocal supporter of King Dalgrim and has offered the hand of all of his children to the King's children for marriage. Princess Taeri is yet to have been betrothed, but she entertains three of his sons among her throng of potential suitors.
• Lord Halmur Goldknuckle
  • Lord Halmur is viewed as cool and passionless. He is always the businessman and a dignified and dutiful husband to his wife, Lady Phona and a proper father to his five sons.
  • It is never discussed in his presence, but it's well known that Lord Halmur had served as a General in the Steel Legion. He and his men would consume Zalcoryn made alchemical potions that would cause them to double in size and enter berserker states, then charge into the enemy ranks. Use of these potions had been outlawed by Lord Kneebitter after the Steel Legion had turned upon the Axewives, a famed band of warriors dedicated to the goddess Haela, in the middle of a battle while they were in this unnatural battle frenzy.
  • It's no great secret that Halmur hates gnomes and had vocally opposed the acceptance of the thriken refugees into dwarven society.
  • He is envious of the wealth of Darshiniath. He had visited there once and since his return he always looks wistfully and greedily upon the massive ziggurat palace ships when they come into port to trade.
  • House Goldknuckle had backed House Glitterbeard during the struggle over the throne after the Wrath.
  • Present day, the two seem to have no great love for one another as Lord Halmur looks on in disgust at Lord Korenen Glitterbeard, who seems to have shoved his massive, diamond speckled head wholly up the King's ass.
  • House Goldknuckle owns the Bank of Nakaltia and maintains numerous investments in several guilds, merchant caravans and the pursuit of growing commerce in the nation.
  • Lord Halmur lives with his family in their estate in the port town of Otwar.
• Lady Alsendar Stonecaller
  • Lady Stonecaller is a wizard and the high priestess of Thautam. She has no husband and no children. When she dies, her younger brother and his family will inherit.
  • She is renowned for being eclectic and a collector of oddities. She is an avid fan of elven wine, ilian cuisine, ogre art and staffs her entire estate with very well paid white furred slyth (which has made alchemical fur bleaching a lucrative profession for one industrious gnome living in on Lapis Street in Ross).
  • House Stonecaller had supported House Irontooth for the throne after the Folly.
  • Lady Stonecaller is the Keeper of the Invisible Tower, which is a title given to the high priestess of Thautam. If this tower is a real thing or merely a title that represents some sort of symbolism is unknown to those outside the clergy of Thautam.
  • She lives in the Stonecaller estate in the town of Ross, though she frequently visits Prism Keep, the temple of Thautam and school of wizardry in Cal Darga.
• Lady Shama Golemwright
  • Lady Shama only recently became head of household following the death of her mother. She has two husbands and three children.
  • Lady Shama, like most of her family, is quiet, patient and calculating, but hugely patriotic. She is part of the family tradition of golemcraft, a trade secret that only House Golemwright family members learn.
  • She has recently debuted a new line of golems, called Sentinels, capable of mimicking intelligent decision making in varying situations.
  • Shama studied with the mad artificers and alchemists of Zalcoryn in her youth.
  • House Golemwright was raised up as a great noble house after they had played a major role in the victory at the end of the Golem Wars, prior to the Wrath.
  • House Golemwright was the last to cast their vote between the three houses vying for the throne. Each house had a single other house supporting them, making the Golemwrights the tiebreaker. In the end, they chose Stormhammer. Generations House Irontooth and Goldknuckle are still considerably sore about it.
• Lord Deman Irontooth
  • Lord Deman, called the "Crooked Lord" in whispers is the lord of Beras. He is unusually thin and gaunt for a dwarf with a misshaped spine that causes his neck to be bent painfully to one side. He is pale with skin like yellowing wax and lank white hair that he wears long. He had always been a sickly child of uninterested parents who favored his older siblings. His entire family perished in a tragic rupture of the volcanic conduit beneath their estate deep beneath Beras. When asked why his entire family had been assembled in the basement when the rupture occurred, he claims ignorance - stating that his family usually left him out of their gatherings and that it would seem being unloved by his parents paid off after all.
  • Lord Deman makes no secret that he loathes the King, the King's family and their allies. But he stands by his duty and responsibilities. The stronghold of Beras, which is a gateway into Dumathoin’s Road, is frequently a target of the marauding hobgoblins and he is determined to safeguard his kingdom and his people, even if they don't recognize and appreciate him for it as much as they should.
  • House Irontooth had fought very passionately for the throne after the Wrath. It is rumored that they had attempted to assassinate some of their competitors and had made dark bargains with planar beings, as was always the rumors about the Irontooths.
• Lord Aitrus Bearking
  • Lord Aitrus is said to resemble a bear more than a dwarf. He lives in a big manor house on the surface, surrounded by apple orchards in the middle of a human settlement. He wrestles bears. His oldest daughter wrestles her father and the bears. His middle daughter lives in the gloom of the capitol representing her family interests and making sure the other noble houses don't conveniently sweep them under some rug…then set it on fire. His son Farrus is in the Bear Legion (dwarven bear cavalry) at Cal Beron, he has a thing for one of the Crownhammer lads.
  • The Bearkings had been raised by King Talek Crownhammer when he ascended his family to the throne following the Wrath – the first time a new House had been raised to become a Great House in thousands of years). This was a VERY unpopular move given that the Bearkings was a commoner family (even lacking a proper surname) that had lived in exile on the surface among humans for a minor infraction some generations ago (regarding an argument on the ownership of a goat). They were known for raising and taming bears, so their new head of household at the time, Ulger chose “Bearking”. King Talek found it to be hilarious and raised him up as the seventh Great Noble House. The other greater and lesser nobles failed to see the humor as the king did.