Realm: Wazmakaghul, the Solitude of Labyrinths
Leader: Skaldii the Pale,the Scholar-Drake of Solitude and the King in the Labyrinth
Race(s): A lone cold-drake that leads goblins and orcs that live in his hold
History: Long ago, the underground dwarf fortress of Wazmakaghul was built as a staging army to fight the dragons, bandits, or even rival dwarves should tensions rise. It was completed to be built like a labyrinth in order to defend themselves better. At the end it was tested in the War of Dwarves and Dragons by cold-drakes who came to for its treasure. Despite the power of dragons, Wamakaghul held but the Dwarves did not. Eventually the Dwarven fortress became a ruin that defenses still stood as it faded into history. But this is not the end of its story.
As time past, a female pregnant drake had found her way to the forgotten walls of the fortress and managed to best the defenses but nearly died in order to get to the treasure. On her last breaths, she laid her egg on the very gold and precious metals in the vault and wrapped her body around it. In her death, her victory was not in vain as her offspring will have inherited her victory. The babe in the egg nearly died but fate had favored this little wyrm.
The babe was pale in scale and eyes shine with a glowing hue to them. This babe had came to survive the growth by feeding on the corpse of his mother and coveted her bones and sinew as he did his hoard. Like all dragons, growth and sleep were deep and slow but during the periods of activity the dragon came to upon curiosity of the fortress that he called home. His mind was naturally sharp, more so than normal lesser dragons as he learned what he could from the ruins. This thirst of knowledge soon became tied to his greed for treasure as he would layer his treasure with tattered scrolls, ruined books, or stones with stories wanting to be told.
He deciphered a broken idea of the history of the dwarven fortress and understood the language of the people that abandoned due to the War. These tattered histories and legends only fueled his lust for knowledge, his dreams plagued by libraries of splendor, plunder of trinkets and of archaic knowledge from Eras beyond his life. His heart thirst for treasure of both material and knowledge as he wished to turned his hoard into a gold library that would be the envy of Middle Earth.
His long slumber was interrupted as goblins had settled and infest his lair. When the small vermin found the young cold-drake, he was not happy for these intruders dared to even step foot in his presence. He used his dragon-spell to not just interrogate them, but to sunder their minds into sludge as his voice was heard through the mouths of the goblins as they let the leadership just who they stumbled upon. The goblin chieftain who came before him bowed to his power and begged for forgiveness.
However, instead of forgiveness, the dragon sought something more. His eyes look towards the ruins of his home, to the battered statues of the dwarven kings and heroes and what could be restored in his image. He also saw the goblins and saw that in the minds he had shattered or read about the various settlements and strongholds but also that the Dark Lord has returned. While the schemes of godlike beings and Wizards as he is a lone lesser of a dragon like Smaug but lazy either.
To the Cold-drake, his greed was more to the point where he wanted more than just simple riches and scraps of knowledge. He sought the providence of majesty and statecraft, of nation-building. He looked at these goblins and made them a deal of offering protection in exchange for servitude. In his draconic eyes, he had plans for these small pitiful creatures and saw the potential for his own uses. The goblin chieftain didn't get much say in it from between the dragon and the wilds they rather deal with a scheming dragon.
The dragon knew he had a lot of work in order to make a nation that he could copy from what he knew about nation-building and that goblins weren't the greatest servants due to them being geared towards infighting and making things geared towards war. To make them become anything different from Goblin-Town and tooled to be more organized.
The goblins needed to be directed, both through selective breeding and cultural engineering in order to get the best that he could from the goblins. It was a good thing that penalties were harsh and their lives were short but plentiful. Of course, with the large surplus of goblins that infested his halls came with the matters of logistics which the dragon was more than happy to direct and eventually dictate for others to manage. The fortress eventually grew for fungal farms and other ramshackle structures as they mined even further into the mountain.
Eventually forges and other works were reclaimed or made from the ramshackle industry. The dragon was pleased somewhat, his experiments into giving them a state was more or less successful, but their statehood was loose as many of the goblins became tribes that bowed to the dragon because of fear of being dominated or eaten. Many had came to fight each other in ritualistic combat for feats of strength or even steal from his hoard.
Because of this, all that he had done was being ripped under him and this will not stand. The dragon went on a rampage and took many goblins, either eaten them or enslaved the survivors with his Dragon-spell. With his rage finally subsided, he figured out that he destroyed all that he had originally built was destroyed. Now he to rebuild everything, but now with more careful watch and needed to get someone who would listen better.
From here, he sent out the goblins to find him bands of orcs and goblins that he can use to create a government structure of a kingdom that he could use terror and domination to make them listen to his words and his laws.
What came out of this second attempt was something strange to the dragon and more successful in organization to building a new nation. Those that came to the Labyrinth give their respect and reverence out of the fear of a dragon and the power of the dragon-spell. The kingdom had effectively been established with laws and a caste system with goblins on the bottom and orcs on the top.
The reason why he specifically chosen female goblins and orcs that were taught by him personally to be his scholar caste, caretakers and minsters. It was the first Herald that gave him the name of Skaldii the Pale, the Scholar-Drake of Solitude and the King in the Labyrinth. All those titles he never gave himself but take them in stride as he finally saw all that he wanted to start becoming true.
Finally, in the start of the new era, where Darkness and Light started the war for the Ring, the fortress is finally seeing some degree of restoration. Metal and stone are being mined, weapons are being manufactured, and fungus is being grown. The goblins and orcs march with ramshackle industry and a focus to bring glory and in the name of the Scholar-Drake for the want is of the world and the enemies are everyone that doesn't respect or bow to their King.
Let them all fear the coming of Sakldii!
Alignment: Independent/Himself, if by DnD alignment, is between neutral and lawful evil
Faction Bonuses:
The Will to Dominate: As a wielder of a remarkably powerful Dragon-spell, Skaldii can place lesser beings, even those with the will to resist him, temporarily under his command. If involved in a battle with creatures of a strength of Lesser Men or below, Skaldii has a high chance of taking control of a significant proportion of that enemy force.
Seeker of Knowledge: Skaldii understands that his servants are of rude make, and desires better. Every few months he may take on a Unique Quest to seek after some lost dark art or secret which may give his followers various advantages, or allow the recruitment of more fell beasts.
Territory: The Fortress is deep into the Grey Mountains, actually carved underground and into a mountain. It is west of the Withered Heath. It's well hidden and mostly ruined except for the ramshackle buildings of goblins coming in and out. It is well out of the way of the old maps that the Dwarves had prior to the War of Dwarves and Dragons.
Settlements: Wazmakaghul, the Solitude of Labyrinths(Tier II)
Strength: Besides Sakldii being a lesser cold-drake with scholarly knowledge, the number is a thousand goblins and a thousand orcs
Name: Sakldii the Pale, the Scholar-Drake of Solitude, King in the Labyrinth
Race: Dragon/Cold-Drake
Appearance:
Role: King of Wazmakaghul and seeker of knowledge
Alignment: Independent/Himself DnD alignment is around neutral and lawful evil
History: Born inside the fortress from his dead mother, Skaldii was alone in a cruel world and as a cruel being. He did not care that he was alone but that he had no mother like normal drakes, or so he believed. Instead he had her corpse as food and the bones as a blanket with the hoard as a bedding. During his growth and sleep cycles he learned much about his home that he added every little scrape of knowledge that he could find in the ruins but only as a means to grow his own mind. Eventually all was exhausted and he was once again unfulfilled and went back to sleep.
Eventually his sleep was interrupted by goblins who settled in his lair and subjugated them into servitude for a time, dreaming of using them as a means of acquiring more wealth of treasure and knowledge for his hoard. However he also was dreaming of nation-hood, a kingdom in the mountains that can outshine the accomplishments of greater dragons like Smaug the Tyrant. Though deep inside he also wanted something a dragon never should cross the mind, companionship. Of course something as prideful as a dragon would ever admit that, even a lesser one such as he.
Despite the treasure of knowledge and coin being shipped as much his lair being restored in some fashion, the goblins had tested his patience. The infighting and constant incompetence eventually made him try to experiment on them. Then someone stole from his hoard. The entire goblin population paid the price as he ate those in his wrath and captured the survivors to experiment on in order to make them more suitable for his goals. During these times, the goblins served as a great basis for his growing need for magical knowledge and made more subtle changes to their minds.
This second attempt was more profitable as he built the goblins into something similar to what the Dark Lord did. They had come to worship the cold-drake as a deity and king of the hold, even making themselves organized in a fashion that wanted them to be. In a way, he had came to finally was able to accept these goblins as his own and his own dreams of an empire started to come to fruition. He taught them and led them as any true king should.
It was them who gave him his name and titles. In exchange, he gave them the caste and the Heralds, female goblins and orcs who were marked by oath to be his representative, caretaker, and agents of his law. This, coupled with the warchiefs that lead the charge in his name have allowed him to march outside of his lair. His is the bid for Middle Earth and to gather all the treasure and knowledge in the world.
Other: Skaldii has a caste of goblins and orcs called Heralds. These are female orcs and goblins that are his scholar assistants, caretakers, representatives, and agents of his rule in the Labyrinth. They are essentially overseers and internal managers of the kingdom. They make sure that everything is tip-top shape and efficient for the industry of the fortress. Many of them would oversee industrial sectors and the growing needs of housing and healthcare. They also are envoys when needing to diplomacy, which hasn't been needed but a Dragon never thinks short.
Skaldii also has a love for pipeweed and has had the goblins craft him a large pipe to smoke it. It is also grown or raided from other goblins or caravans for the dragon's favor and blessings. It is one of the few things that are grown outside in the mountains and, if contact with the outside world is worth it, could be traded outside of the usual tax.
Secretly, Skaldii wants a companion or at least a mother. His evil nature has twisted it to be a compulsion to want female caretakers around him. They are considered part of his hoard, which is why he has created the Heralds. They are also considered the most cuddled and spoiled of the caste, akin to nobles.