We reckon the days of the Modern Era beginning three millenia ago when the Dwarves of the East first landed on the shores of Telisar, sailing the tides of woe and war. Most people believe these were the first Dwarves to walk this land. But most people have forgotten the Tale of Moradin Kinslayer. This is the tale I will tell you now, even as Woden, Father of Justice told it to his brothers and sisters.

By Woden’s divine word was Moradin, the first dwarf, hewn from solid rock and given life. As Wodentold it, Moradin made his home here, high in the Redfall Mountains of Telisar; so taken was he with the beauty of the land the Gods had fashioned that he was inspired to add his own creations to it, and so he cut each dwarf from the mountain stone with his mighty war pick, Grendel. This is why Moradin was called Moradin Lifecarver.

This was very long ago, in the ages before the Modern Era began. Here, high in the mountains and away from the other races, Moradin taught the dwarves how to mine, and smith, and work metals. For centuries, Moradin’s Kin shaped the mountains into the twin cities of High and Low Thorimfel, carving and levelling and working the very bedrock, pulling riches from the ground and fashioning grand works of art and engineering.

But Moradin Lifecarver grew bold, and bade his Kin descend the mountains, to take the South Pass to the plains and subjagate the folk that lived there, for were not the dwarves the mightiest, most perfect of all the races? Was not their story the greatest? The dwarves obeyed, and Moradin’s Kin came down out of the mountains, their vanguard atop mighty gryphons, with Moradin at their lead, and there was war in Telisar for the first time. This is why Woden is also called Father Of War.

But seeing this, Woden grew angry, for it is a poor thing to raise oneself up by driving your neighbour into the mud, and He loved not His new divine aspect. And so as Woden told it a great meteor rent the skies above mighty Thorimfel. So forceful was its coming that the meteor split two: one half sundered High Thorimfel utterly; the city, and the mountainside from which it was carved, shattered and fell away into the sea, leaving only the sheer drop of the Cliffs Of White. The other half splintered in the air, and rained fire and destruction down on Low Thorimfel. What portions of the city that were not completely destroyed were buried, lost forever under avalanches of stone and earth miles across, as the mountains collapsed.

And so Moradin Lifecarver, in his folly and hubris, became Moradin Kinslayer. He retreated from the world in despair, into the Endless Night where dwell all the Gods of this realm, and from that day to this has never again stood on the stones of the world.

Without their general, the Dwarven armies were defeated, slain to the last man. And the Iron Gates that now guard Kinslayer Pass were raised, and closed, as a bulwark against any other Redfall Dwarf that should seek to march on the free peoples of Telisar.

But there is a legend that some dwarves survived the destruction of Thorimfel, living on in darkness under the mountains, their city forever buried, and their hearts returned to stone. Whether there is truth to this I know not, but long is the story of Telisar, and unfinished; perhaps this tale is not yet done.