History

The dwarves were created alongside the other races of the Conclave. They fought against the goblins in the Goblin War the same as the others. Unlike the others, from the beginning the dwarves were led by Karnafaust, First High King of the Dwarves. As the humans progressed they copied the dwarves governmental structure and one of their own became king of the humans. King Karnafaust and this new King Drolofo argued about the course of the Goblin War. Their disagreements grew until Karnafaust could take it no more. He led the dwarven people in seceding from the Conclave. The dwarves left to found their own kingdom.

Karnafaust built a new kingdom with the city of Fangaroot as its capital. A few years of cool weather reduced crop yields across Cimmeria soon after the city’s construction. Tempers heated within the Conclave and soon the dwarves fought their previous allies. This war was finished by a duel between Karnafaust and the human leader Drolofo. Karnafaust was slain, but the dwarves petitioned Hades for relief. Thus the resurrection pact was established, allowing anybody to return to life with the proper expenditure of magical power and diamonds. Karnfaust was also gifted the Fierce Axe of Dwarvish Lords by Hephaestus. The Axe became a symbol of the High King of Dwarves’ right to rule.

Fangaroot’s fate led it to be the unhappy trumpet sound at the start of the Age of Monsters. The city was conquered by Kenderax and his kobold army. Karnafaust died a second and final time during the assault. His heir and nephew, Cogard, was born during the dwarven flight from the city. Until his came of age a council of regents was appointed to rule. The council formed a new capital in the city of Dalleer, but their ineffective leadership led to problems. Most dwarves abandoned the central location and spread across Cimmeria.

When Prince Cogard came of age he went on a tour of the disparate dwarves. Through meeting with them and personally helping with whatever their current troubles were, Cogard rebuilt the dwarven nation. He reunited all the dwarves save those who lived within the Dominarie Mountains. The Dominarie Dwarves remained loyal to their Queen, Shortrastor. Cogard accepted Queen Shortrastor’s independence. He constructed a new capital for himself at Jord.

King Cogard’s wife gave birth to quadruplet sons which foretold the end of dwarven unity. The sons fought alongside each other during the Dragon War, but constantly quarreled over resources to oppose the dragons with. Cogard’s presence kept his sons peaceful, but civil war broke out as soon as he died. The great Dwarven Kingdom was split into four parts and the Fierce Axe, symbol of the High King, was lost. Alongside this deterioration, the Dominarie Kingdom fared worse. They suffered under the return of Bavastatner and then were utterly obliterated by the campaigns of Kruk-Ma-Kali. The only remaining Dominarie Dwarves are ghosts.

In more recent years dwarven fortunes have improved. Fangaroot was retaken from the kobolds and renamed Balin’s Holt after the dwarven general that led the expedition. The Fierce Axe was found once more by Atreides during the First Alliance War. It was taken by the Xorians but reclaimed by Torin. A Kingsmoot of the four royal descendants of Cogard bestowed the Fierce Axe to Torngar of the Mountain Dwarves. He now rules as High King of the Dwarves.

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I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
  2. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  3. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  4. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  5. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)