Living ENWorld:History:Vundinn
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[edit] The Fall of the Dwarven Clan Vundinn
[edit] Clan Vundinn
Their clanhold is located deep within the Underdark below the Northern Mountains, to the north of the Vastermarch cities. In their golden years, the Vundinn mined adamantine, a difficult process since the material is so incredibly hard. The clan maintained extensive records of adamantine deposits and veins throughout the mountains and stretching down into the Vastermarch. One small deposit can be found near a large rock that looks like a dwarven baby.
The Vundinn clan is notable because they were among the only dwarven clans to wear the kilt. This tradition arose many generations ago when the women of the clan had to protect the village from a surprise attack while most of the men were out hunting. They grabbed their husbands' weapons and ran out into battle wearing their skirts. They single handedly beat back the entire enemy force. When the men returned, a great ceremony was held in the women's honor, and all the men wore skirts in homage to their valor. In that ceremony, the women received completely equal rights with the men. After the celebration night, a few of the men continued to wear the skirts, and the fashion spread quickly and held fast for the centuries it has been since that day.
[edit] Waves of Darkness
Half a century ago, the Vundinn clan was waging war with an encroaching horde of dark, intelligent beasts. In the words of one surviving member, "...the creatures that drove us out weren' mindless monsters, they were cold, intelligent, they had weapons that..." The Vundinn lost all of their ancient stone houses and many of their clansmen to the foul monsters as they were forced upwards, towards the surface. Their second settlement was less defensible and did not have even a year of peace before the same creatures attacked. After two long years of conflict, that settlement was also destroyed and abandoned. Even more clansmen died defending the second settlement, and the monsters had no qualms about killing women and children. The dwarves who survived in the greatest numbers were the wild Vundinn warrior-barbarians, fierce combatants both honored and feared by the rest of the Vundinn clan. It was these dwarves who taught Rasereit to fight.
The Vundinn moved all the way up to a large cavern right below the surface. There they faced sporadic attacks from goblins and orcs who squatted in the nearby mountains, but they survived for another twenty one years before the monsters returned in full force. This time, an unusually intelligent orc used the threat of the monsters to unite the scattered goblinoid tribes. The combined forces of the goblinoids beat back the creatures of the depths before they reached the new Vundinn settlement.
[edit] Old "Friends" and the Scattering
After a short respite, the orcs and goblins attacked the dwarves, determined to claim the dwarves' cavern for themselves. The Vundinn clan was almost shattered, but a few warrior-barbarians and Rasereit survived. The remnants managed to trek to the surface. There they survived for another two years under the minor oppression of goblinoids as they slowly migrated south of the mountain range. Finally, the Vundinn clan was completely disbanded when the last few clansmen simply gave up and walked their own separate ways.
