Two significant Fae loved the things of the stony earth and all that lay within it. This love compelled them to choose stewardship over the element of earth and the subsurface world including its living things. They chose a form that would be well adapted to living in that environment. Powerfully built with solid bones reinforced with minerals and thick skin that was not easily bruised or torn and which was resistant to both hot and cold. They were hairy and bearded to protect from the colder temperatures especially near the surface. Taking these forms, they forgot their fae immortality and though mature in form, were like little children. They were instructed by those Great Ones of the Fae that took on stewardship for the whole world of Aralyn and would be known as Gods. The Gods charged them with caring for the underworld, cherishing it and the living things that dwelt there. This couple would sire a race that would call itself "stoneborn" and develop myths of being made from stone. 

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The dwarves lived and multiplied for close to 90,000 years in a subterranean environment with no memory or knowledge of the surface, in a state of balance with the subterranean biosphere.  Initially they lived in a stone age, until they discovered smelting and metalcraft. Each newly discovered metal and useful or pleasing mineral gave them greater capacities and appreciation. Their civilization grew until one day they discovered, by accident an entire world on the surface. In time, they discovered useful things and resources there and began to live in both worlds. But, the underworld would always be their true home, where they felt the greatest sense of belonging. Slowly what had been mere villages in caverns or networks of caverns, turned into great underground cities with corridors and halls hewn in emulation of the angular geometry of crystalline forms, which they considered to be the image of perfection. Even their writing system, initially carved into stone or engraved upon plates of metal, reflected this geometry, even when written in ink on paper. The dwarves grew in technology, science, philosophy, literature, and musical, visual, choreographic and even theatrical arts. They prospered long in sundry city-realms under the firm rule of powerful monarchs. But as time went on, greed and the lust for power began to sow its corrupt seed among the people and their rulers. Kingdoms would rise, then fall and war was always a threat.

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One of the greatest dwarven kingdoms was Kheled Tarmorashum, Greatmountain Delf, which lay in the north-east corner of the region shown on the map in The Dwarven Prince, where the Tarmored Grozash. the Tempest Mountains, turn a corner and become the Tarmored Gur, the Fortress Mountains. This kingdom was built before the Sundering and its civilization lasted for a little more than two thousand years, experiencing several cycles of growth, corruption, decay, and renewal. In the end, though, corruption in the government and guilds became so horrendous that a great many dwarves defected to a rebellion and with the aid of fire dragons, who naturally seek out and destroy corruption, the kingdom was laid waste, most of its inhabitants were killed, and a few faithful who vowed to honor the Gods and their laws of ethics departed into Callannyn forest, becoming the Gnomes, or south along the Tempest Mountains. This southern group eventually built Kheled Mor, featured in The Dwarven Prince and on the eastern side of the Tempest mountains a couple hundred of miles north, the growing mining city of Targashalezh or Blackstone. featured in The Fairy and The Dwarf. 

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About 2,200 years since its founding, Kheled Mor suffered a great blow. The race of humanity that had colonized much of the lands west from Kheled Mor, known as the Huma, had befriended the dwarves and opened trade with them. Then one day during a trade visit of traders from the human city of Draibruka, goverened not by any realm, but by the powerful Trade Guild, it was discovered that the monarch's jewel, the Darkflame stone, was missing. The gates were shut and a thorough search carried out, during which one of the merchant's party was discovered with the famed hereditary talisman. The monarch, a queen, canceled all of their trade negotiations and imprisoned the huma, but they escaped.The dwarves appealed to the rulers of the three human realms that bordered the Free City of Draibruka, but none would show support for the dwarves' demand for justice. Neither would the elves of either Callannyn Forest or the Syldarryn riverlands get involved. Deeply offended, but more importantly their trust in the tallfolk of both races gone, the queen ordered the gates shut and sealed. Only dwarves could enter Kheled Mor now and only through the Eastern gates or from underground highways that connected the sundry kingdoms and city-states. And this persisted for almost 1000 years before the opening of The Dwarven Prince.

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