Editing Chaos Dwarfs (section)

==The Domain of the Dawi-Zharr==

Between the World's Edge Mountains in the west, the Mountains of Mourn in the east and the Sea of Dread in the south lie the Dark Lands, a barren wasteland of ash and dust, devoid of plants or sunlight, the air thick with volcanic smoke, and the Dawi-Zharr claim dominion over it. Most Chaos Dwarfs dwell within this godforsaken realm, but some clans have established exclaves in further regions, like [[Norsca]] and the [[Chaos Wastes]]. In other words, rather than living in [[Empire|not-Germany]], [[Lustria|not-South America]] or [[Nehekhara|not-Egypt]], the Chaos Dwarfs have made [[Mordor|not-Mordor]] their home. What they eat is a mystery as unlike Mordor there is no Nurn equivalent.

===The Dark Lands===

[[File:Darklands.png|300px|thumb|right|Home, sweet barren Home]]
The Dark Lands are a vast area of nothingness and not even a force as mighty as the Dawi-Zharr could ever hope to truly dominate it.

====Zorn-Uzkul, the Great Skull Land====

In the north, the High Pass from [[Kislev]] leads through the Worlds Edge Mountains into the Zorn-Uzkul, the Great Skull Land, where the ancestors of the Dawi-Zharr first settled. Here, the Road of Skulls to the Chaos Wastes leads through a great plateau littered with bones, many of them skulls of mighty beasts long perished, giving the forbidding area its name. The Dwarfs discovered rich deposits of ore in the ground, but most of them ultimately abandoned the obviously tainted region and returned west. Those who stayed and founded Uzkulak in the north or went on eastwards to the Mountains of Mourn were eventually corrupted by the increasing influence of Chaos and became the ancestors of the Dawi-Zharr. Today, Zorn-Uzkul is the northernmost part of the Chaos Dwarf empire, and to follow the Road of Skulls in the shadows of haunted Uzkulak is a very dangerous endeavor.
{{anchor|Plain of Zharr}}
====Zharrduk, the Plain of Zharr====

When the waters of the River Ruin roar down the Falls of Doom from Zorn-Uzkul, they first enter the Plain of Zharr, a vast meteoric crater in the north-east of the Dark Lands and the heartland of the Dawi-Zharr empire. The earth is rich in minerals and precious resources, and the Chaos Dwarfs have turned the whole of Zharrduk into one gigantic industrial complex. The ground is riddled with pools of boiling oil and molten metal, rivers of steaming lava crisscross its broken crust, the sun is hidden behind a thick layer of smoke and ash; no living thing is to be found as far as the eye can see. At its center the Dawi-Zharr have erected Zharr-Naggrund, their great capital, and the plain of Zharr is littered with smaller outposts, workshops, foundries and forges. Unabating is the sound of mighty steam-driven forgehammers and the anguished cries of the tortured slaves throughout Zharrduk as the Dawi-Zharr mold their atrocious empire day and night.

====The Blasted Wastes====

The Blasted Wastes in the west of the Dark Lands, between the World's Edge Mountains and the Gates of Zharr, are a vast desert and sustain very little life. They are mostly home to nomadic Goblin tribes and other ravaging hordes, but they also house a great number of Black Orc tribes, most notably Grimgor Ironhide and his elite clan, Da Immortulz. Needless to say that the Chaos Dwarfs view the area mostly as hunting grounds for their slave pits.

====The Howling Wastes====

East of the road from Zharr-Naggrund to the Tower of Gorgoth lie the Howling Wastes. Where the Blasted Wastes are a sparse desert, the Howling Wastes are covered by an eternal mist, carrying thin voices and a wailing clamour of an forgotten age. The ground is mostly marshes and swamplands, and traversing it is almost guaranteed to get the unwary swallowed by the land, if not accompanied by an experienced guide.

====The Desolation of Azgorh====

Before the age of Chaos Dwarfs, the mighty volcano of Azgorh erupted with such a mighty crescendo that it split the mountain and rent the ground around it asunder. The ash cloud could be seen in distant Khemri and the elves in their Old World colonies registered the resulting earthquakes. The great upheaval reformed the landscape into an almost impenetrable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks and vents of toxic fumes, but it also unearthed a most precious mineral wealth, which a near infinite number of slaves now dig out of the rock in the mines around the Tower of Gorgoth.

====The River Ruin====
Ruin is apt. It starts in the north and flows south through the plains of Zharr where it's waters are used for industrial purposes and as a mean to carry away the run-off from the steel mills, arms factories and oil fields. After ten thousand drain pipes, you get a turgid murky morass that nothing can live in that empties out into the sea. It also gives the Dawi Zharr access to the greater ocean.

[[File:Warhammer Chaos Dwarf Symbol.png|center|200px]]

===Dawi-Zharr Strongholds===

Many are the fortress-citadels, garrisons and strongholds of the Dawi-Zharr empire. Most of them are found on the Plain of Zharr, some are more remote, but the greatest and most important one is Zharr-Naggrund, the gruesome capital of the Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr.

====Zharr-Naggrund, the City of Fire and Desolation====

At the heart of the Plain of Zharr lies Mingol-Zharr-Naggrund, the great capital of the Dawi-Zharr empire. It is a gigantic ziggurat of black obisidian, bristled with armed towers and the chimneys of thousands of furnaces and forges. Incessant are the clouds of black smoke and ash vomited from the workings deep in the bowels of Zharr-Naggrund, where untold numbers of slaves toil unremittingly for their cruel masters. The lowest ranks of the Chaos Dwarf society live at the bottom of the ziggurat, whereas the higher echelons are found closer to the top, where, at its pinnacle, lies the great Temple of Hashut. Huge gates are found at the four sides of each step of the great ziggurat, their battlements studded with great engines of destruction and guarded by a fearsome battalion of elite warriors. The northern gate allows in the River Ruin, re-routed through the city by the Dawi-Zharr to cool their forges and to siphon away the toxic industrial waste and the corpses of dead slaves through the southern gate. So heavy is the pollution from the city, that nothing can live in the River Ruin beyond it. Broad streets plated with gold and brass lead from the eastern and western gates throughout the Plain of Zharr to the Dark Lands and the Mountains of Mourn. Inside the citadel the Dawi-Zharr live and work in the perpetual twilight of their furnaces.

====Uzkulak, the Place of the Skull====

Uzkulak, the Place of the Skull, is the seat of the ancient Dwarf settlement in the Zorn-Uzkul, before the coming of Chaos. It is the northern most Dawi-Zharr stronghold and the most important slave port. Uzkulak sits at the southern branch of the Sea of Chaos, where the slave ships of the Dawi-Zharr sail forth to far away places to still Zharr-Naggrund's insatiable hunger for slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs have greatly expanded the vast underground tunnel connecting the Sea of Chaos with the River Ruin by the Falls of Doom and installed a sophisticated lock to allow ships to traverse it in both directions. Uzkulak is a strange and haunted place, even by Dawi-Zharr standards, and its shunned lower levels are forbidden grounds, except as punishment for oath-breakers and blasphemers.

====The Tower of Gorgoth====

The massive Tower of Gorgoth sits at the junction between the Blasted Wastes, the Howling Wastes and the Desolation of Azgorh. The tower itself stands on the plateau of a volcanic mountain range, harboring the greatest network of mines in the domain of the Dawi-Zharr. As the seams reach deep in the rock, over the centuries more and more slaves were needed to excavate the precious ore from the unyielding mountains. Over time, more and more slave trading clans have made base around the Tower of Gorgoth, which also serves to replenish the hordes of slave fighters in the Chaos Dwarf armies. Since the Tower of Gorgoth is quite remote from the Plain of Zharr and the might of Zharr-Naggrund, it is regularly attacked by Skaven, Greenskins or Ogres, who think it an easier target. However, the Tower of Gorgoth is manned by a sizeable garrison of Dawi-Zharr and the citadel has never fallen to the enemy. On the contrary, most assaults in the end only serve to swell the number of slaves in the endless mines beneath the Tower of Gorgoth.
It was also the place where the Chaos Dwarfs experimented on the Red Dragon Hadgar who became a Magma Dragon (and it's very heavily implied to be the first of their kind...as if Black Orcs weren't enough) thanks to the insane daemonic rituals and aforementioned experiments (which yielded in that thanks to them they could create their K'Daai). It backfired spectacularly once Hadgar freed himself. With his newfound superior firepower Hadgar wrecked the Tower of Gorgoth and wiped out all the slave camps that were there. It took the hat folk a very long time to rebuild the place and get new slaves.

====The Gates of Zharr====

Halfway between Zharr-Naggrund and the Tower of Gorgoth lie the Gates of Zharr, a massive archway of black stone and iron. Thousands of slaves in endless streams are forced through it every day, the shouts bellowed by their overseers harsher and the lashes of their whips even stronger in the shadows of the towers flanking the mighty testament of the Dawi-Zharrs' claim to the Dark Lands. Passing the Gates in neither direction would mean an end to the suffering for the poor souls, they are either herded towards the Tower of Gorgoth to spend the remainder of their lives, usually a short and painful one, in the mines beneath the volcano, or their destination is Zharr-Naggrund, where they will meet a much quicker end but under even greater agony. A warhost from Zharr-Naggrund to raid the lands beyong the Mad Dog Pass or Death Pass will also march below the Gates of Zharr, the rhythm of their beating drums and blaring horns mirrored by thousands of warriors beating their weapons on their armor, their standards held high, so the world shall know no respite from the wrath of the Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr.

====The Black Fortress====

The eastern entry into the Dark Lands, south of the Mountains of Mourn, is guarded by the Black Fortress. In a land already blessed with a surplus of bleak desolation, the Black Fortress still stands out as place of hopelessness and grim determination. Unlike the Tower of Gorgoth, the Black Fortress does not oversee huge mining activities or large groups of the ever valued slaves, its purpose is purely militaristic and the deployment to the Legion of Azgorh is often viewed as a punishment and exile. In fact, the Black Fortress is home to the Infernal Guard, a warrior-cult for dishonoured Dawi-Zharr who have to redeem themselves in the eyes of their harsh society or find solace in death. Their names and past deeds are shorn away, as are their faces sealed shut behind hot-iron and bronze helmets.