Lowhills was settled forty years ago by a Drazden Warmaker. Drazden and the remnants of his clan fled their mountain home after being overrun by the Illithid and their minions after ten years of war. Their best smiths and their best fighters had been lost and they had no options left to them but to flee. They found the Lowhills and settled there. The few human tribes that dwelt here had no qualms of sharing the land around them.
Lowhills is made up of smooth rolling hills. It is surrounded by plains which give them a superior advantage when spotting enemy armies approaching. One thing that was lacking is any metal for the dwarves to work their traditional arts. From this lack of options was born a new craft of this band of wandering dwarves. With single-minded determination the dwarves quickly learned to harvest the wool that grew on the numerous sheep in the area.
The cloth produced by the dwarves was unsurpassed in durability as the dwarves put the same effort they put into the stone and metal work they typically worked with. The best work however was not the cloth they made but the clothing they made from it. The level of intricacy that was created had never before been seen in these areas.
Lowhills not only has the benefit of being surrounded by plains but also has a river marking one of it's borders. The Dwarves hope to one day return and claim their realm but it will take time to increase their numbers and their strength.
Dwarves by their very nature try to build things that last longer that they live. With the loss of their home and most of their people they have had to adapt. Warriors are trained harder and more often. The dwarven craft of metal working is still taught but to low numbers. Most dwarves apprentice in cloth making and as tailors. The dwarven numbers have gone from eight hundred to two thousand five hundred in the forty years that the dwarves have been exiled from their home. The elders say that when they are ten thousand warriors strong they will return and wage war once again on the illithids.
The humans that inhabit the Lowhills are nomadic and interact with the dwarves on a regular basis. Some of the humans have taken to live among the dwarves but as a whole they still remain nomadic and travel the Lowhills
The dwarves that are not training as warrior farm the land. They heard sheep from one hill to another. From these families come the Tailors. Dwarven tailors are responsible for much of the wealth that is coming in.
With the king and most of his family dead, and the clans decimated the dwarves no longer follow traditional clan separation and have no king. When Drazden dies, five years after arriving in the Lowhills, he named a magistrate to command the remaining warriors and to lead the people.
Daggerant is a small town that receives all the spelljamming traffic coming into the Lowhills. They import dies and metal ores primarily and export cloth and clothing. One of their more popular clothing lines are the various uniforms the produce. There are several inns and taverns located here to accommodate visiting ships' crews. With the opening of the trade route to Daggerant. Many ships dock here to refresh and resupply. The people of Daggerant are very civilized to all visitors, but have a strict no illithid policy. Ships arriving with any illithid aboard are to report the fact and restrict the offending creature from disembarking. Failure to comply, is dealt with swiftly and lethally. And the offending captain is fined.
The town is located on the edge of the River Lark and on the border of the Lowhills. The few humans that have settled down live here. As such they make a quarter of the permanent population.
This and Eagran Keep are the remnants of an ancient civilization. Nothing is known of the previous inhabitants. When the dwarves found them they were in shambles. It took them five years to rebuild them but when they were done they had a very defensible place location. Elder Keep is the largest of the keeps and serves as the training ground for the dwarven warriors. The keep is not as large as it once had probably been. Much or the remains were deconstructed to rebuild this keep.
The dwarves are currently attempting to expand the keep further by going underground. So far they have been unsuccessful due to lack of material and the enormous cost of importing the stone they need. What little they have been able to expand has taken years from the little space they gain. The magistrate is said to be considering abandoning the project.
Known only to the magistrate and the War Priest that is in charge of Elder Keep, there is a secret order of dwarven psions here that train for the day when they return to reclaim their ancestral homeland. Dwarven children are always being monitored for possible psionic talent. Those that are found to have the talent are drafted into this organization.
This small town is home to the Magistrate. It is all dwarven but they often receive human visitors as well as. There are dry dock here to receive ships capable of landing on dry land. There are also two ship cradles, to accommodate ships not capable of making a dry landing. The only spacefaring visitors are people who have to deal with the Lowhill dwarves. There is no trade conducted from Maldaran.
The smallest of the rebuilt keeps, it is also the furthest out of the keeps. It is right on the edge of the Lowhills opposite to Daggerant. Eagran Keep has an extensive stable that keeps the ponies that the dwarves use on patrols. All dwarven patrols leave from this fortification.
With the loss of the war, and their exile, the dwarves had few options. Settling the Lowhills was the best thing they could have done after wandering the land for two years. The first magistrate Avan Quickstrike was chosen by Drazden himself. After ten years he abdicated the role of Magistrate to Sledge Hardfist. During this time, the Lowhills were visited by spacefaring dwarves. Avan had decided he did not have the will to lead the people in the new era of trade that was to come. Sledge however was Avan's younger by 100 years and was not an old warrior who was set in his was.
The Razor Clan, was eager to open up a new trade. And slowly the spacefaring dwarves opened up spacefaring trade with the Lowhills. The Razor Clan still keeps contact with the Lowhills and in fact are responsible for founding the Psions that are in Elder Keep.
The Dwarves began to sell their cloth to the various traders that began to arrive in the following decades. Slowly the dwarves began to procreate and have increased their numbers. They probably have about two centuries before they are even close to their precious numbers.
Ten years ago, there was a new magistrate voted in. He he has done much to increase trade with spelljamming nations. He recruits dwarves to hire on to vessels and explore the spheres looking for new trade and possible weapons to use against the illithids. Logan Sheildholder is a young dwarf of 60 years.
