Lore's Drop: Tharun Tharamund (The First High King under the Mountain.) (Patreon)

Before the kingdoms, before the Elves even set foot on Terrybiël, the Dwarves were a divided people. Born of the hand of Telemandir, God of the Earth, King of great tremors, and Lord of the Lands. They were once tall and tall-souled. But centuries of fratricidal war darkened their hearts and souls, and the pained wrath of their creator stripped them of their former stature.

Telemandir didn't rumble. He simply looked away. And no Dwarf was ever born tall again.

In the heavy silence of their creator, a Dwarf emerged. Tharun. Neither noble, nor chosen, nor champion. A rock cutter. Neither handsome nor repulsive, neither strong nor weak, but persuasive. And deeply religious. He prayed not for blessing, but for Telemandir's forgiveness.

Thrown unwillingly between two rival armies during a mining conflict, Tharun was merely a spokesman for desperate workers. Thrown to the sword, almost sacrificed, he was not expected to survive. But he did.  Not without a fight because peace sometimes demands it.
He conquered. Then he spoke. And what he said resonated.

"I didn't fight to win, but so that you would listen to me. That you might see what we have become. I struck to stop the strike. To prevent that, when your children come down here, they'll find only our bones to teach them to strike again. I'm not stronger than you. No more noble. But I'm tired of burying my friends in graves dug by other Dwarves."

And so, throughout the Dwarf clans, his name began to roll. Through him, the Dwarves began to hope for something more than an eternal cycle of bloodshed. His quest was not that of a conqueror: he wanted to make peace between his people, so that Telemandir could once again set eyes on them.

It was this almost sacred quest that first rallied the humble. Then, for fear of oblivion or out of faith, the powerful. He wasn't without his faults. He knew how to handle threat as well as hope. He knew how to bring down a leader... but also how to reach out to them after the fall.

He became a symbol. Then a necessity.

For a long time, he refused the title of King. Until the need to guide and preserve overcame his humility. 

Thus began the Tharamund dynasty.

Under his reign, peace and unity returned. Telemandir forgave, and then...

came the Elves.