The Plain of Stone Hills is where dwarves live. The terrain in the south of the kingdom is complex. In addition to plains, there are also hills, mountains, swamps and other terrains. Humans occupy the largest plain area. The swamps are dominated by trolls and lizardmen, while Stone Mountains are dominated by trolls and lizardmen.
The Principle of Hills is a mixed area of hills and plains. There are not only places where food can be grown, but also large and small mines, enough for dwarves to continuously mine.
The relationship between dwarves and humans is normal. Humans also had the idea of the original mineral vein of Shiqiu at the beginning, but dwarves are really difficult to deal with. These guys are natural heavy infantry. They are generally around 1.4 to 1.5 meters tall, but generally have broad shoulders.
Thicker than human thighs, they basically grow horizontally. Dwarves are even stronger than orcs. Dwarves holding war hammers and wearing armor have stronger individual combat abilities than orcs. There is not much difference between men and women, and both can wear armor.
Going into battle, more than one million dwarves were able to mobilize half a million armored soldiers, armed like hedgehogs.
The key point is that the fertility rate of dwarves is not high, the population has always remained within a stable range, and there is not much expansion ambition. There is not much conflict with humans. Communication is mainly based on transactions. Over time, both parties have acquiesced in the existence of the other.
The dwarves need the fine wine and some commodities provided by the human world, while the humans need the ores from the Stone Hill Plains and the armor and weapons made by the dwarves. There are occasional conflicts, but peace is the mainstay in the long term. With these foundations here, Parley this time
Then he sent people with some gifts, hoping to win over the dwarves as a force against the orcs.
The main forces of the three major corps in the south have all been transferred north. In addition to the garrison, only the private armies of the nobles are left in the local area. In addition to the armed forces under Parley, the garrison corps in major cities still have some combat effectiveness. In addition to constantly strengthening the strength of his men, Parley
In addition, they also hope to increase their strength against the orcs by wooing races like dwarves. However, the dwarves still have some doubts and have not responded to Parley's kindness for the time being.
At this time, in the Plain of Stone Hills, the dwarf royal court was discussing the news received from the human messenger.
This royal court is completely located in a mountain range, and the sound is inexplicably amplified here. Coupled with the unique loud voice of the dwarves, their conversation is almost like a quarrel.
"King! If what humans say is true, we may still need to cooperate with humans!"
"Hmph! These humans are very cunning. If you cooperate with them, you will be afraid of being cheated."
"I think these humans are pretty good, and the wine they send is pretty good!"
"Gulu gulu..."
Another big gulp of wine was taken down. It was strange that these dwarves could drink in such a serious occasion as the royal court meeting.
"Brown! Leave some for me!"
"Okay, what does it look like? If you want to drink, you can drink after talking about it!"
After chatting for a while, the dwarf king really couldn't stand it anymore. He patted the chair and stopped the patriarchs who were still drinking.
The political system of the dwarves is rather strange. Although there is a dwarf king, it is divided into seven major clans.
The Dwarf King is elected among the chiefs of the seven major clans. The current Dwarf King Norton was previously the chief of the Blackstone Clan. The reason why he was elected as the Dwarf King is also very simple. This person is quite reliable and can at least hold meetings.
I won’t drink when I’m there.
In such a chaotic political system, the dwarves have never had any major civil strife, which can be regarded as the advantage of this tribe being relatively brainless. On weekdays, the clan leaders of various clans would have meetings to drink wine, and he would turn a blind eye. After all, he himself
He was also greedy, but now when discussing such an important matter, these people also drank, which made Norton a little angry.
After realizing that Norton was really angry, the following dwarf chiefs calmed down a little and turned their energy back to the meeting.
"King, I don't think we need to pay attention to humans. Regardless of whether it is true that the orcs are coming, even if they drive away humans and become the masters outside, it has nothing to do with us dwarves. If they dare to take the idea of Shiqiuyuan, they will
Let’s ask if the war hammer in our hands will agree!”
"That's right! King, let the humans and orcs fight. This has nothing to do with the dwarves."
"At most, for the sake of the wine, we can give them some weapons and armor."
The forging ability of dwarves is superior to that of humans. They are almost all born blacksmiths. Their thick arms are much more advantageous than humans in wielding sledgehammers. In addition to being more skilled in skills, they also master certain metal formulas, resulting in
The weapons made by the dwarves are sharper and the armor is stronger, which is very popular among humans.
"If you think about it more carefully, the orcs may not be as easy to talk to as humans. The orcs are not only enemies with humans, but five hundred years ago, the orcs were also enemies with the dwarves. If the orcs come, our dwarves' life will definitely be even more difficult than it is now.
"
"Does the king actually know what happened five hundred years ago? What happened five hundred years ago?"
"Five hundred years ago, the people living outside the Stone Hill Plain were not humans, but a group of orcs. At that time, the dwarves not only had to build weapons and equipment for the orcs for free, but also handed over food to the orcs. The most egregious thing was that they even brewed
The wine must also be handed over."
More than five hundred years ago, before Aragorn was born, the Orc Kingdom was at its peak, with a population four to five times its current size. It received a large amount of elven heritage and treated many races, including humans and dwarves, as vassals.
, after all, in the period of low magic, a fertile and strong race like the orcs had great advantages. If humans did not produce a cheating Aragorn, the orcs could continue to dominate.
"What, you have to hand over the brewed wine, this is too much!"
"Yeah, we don't even have enough wine for ourselves!"
"If there is such a thing, beat him!"
The dwarves, who were initially uninterested, suddenly became angry after hearing the end, as if they were ready to fight the orcs.
Only Norton frowned and looked at the speechless expression below. He really wanted to make a rule that no dwarfs would be allowed to drink during meetings in the royal court in the future.
"I have sent the human envoy back for the time being. What I mean is that if we don't want the orcs to defeat the humans, then we must be ready to send troops."
"But, King, without Wang Dun, the armies of the seven clans cannot leave the Plain of Stone Hills."
After talking for a long time, a sober dwarf finally thought of the key to the problem. This was a secret that only the top dwarves knew. The dwarves were cursed by the elves. The dwarf army could not leave the stone hill until someone picked up the dwarf king's shield.
Original, otherwise the entire race will suffer disaster.
"I have been thinking about it for so long, and I always feel that the elves lied to us about this matter. The elves just want us dwarves to stay in the Stone Hill Plains to build weapons for them."
"Don't talk nonsense. Our Ax and Hammer clan has been passing down this rule since our ancestors... our fathers. There is absolutely no lie."
"Yes, the armies of the seven major clans cannot leave the Plain of Stone Hills without the appearance of the true king who takes up the king's shield."
"Over the years, the only ones recorded to have picked up the King's Shield were elves, and now the elves are all extinct..."
Norton is slightly higher than the other dwarves. He has vaguely realized that the dwarves seemed to have been deceived by the elves. Although he has not replied to Parley's envoy for the time being, he is actually inclined to send troops to cooperate with humans. Now he is in
Do work for other dwarf chieftains.
But the simpler the race, the greater the reverence for tradition. The dwarf patriarchs like these have not thought about why only elves have picked up the dwarf king's shield. They only know that tradition is tradition and cannot be violated, Norton said.
Everything else was fine, every head shook like a rattle when the troops were raised.
Norton had no choice but to ask each clan to build more equipment suitable for human sizes, hoping that humans could stand up to the orcs for a while longer.
Parley, who was still sending envoys to persuade the dwarves to send troops, didn't know that his plan was blocked by an inexplicable tradition...