(409-655/3) The War of Sorrows was a long, bloody conflict fought between the races of dwarves and goblins.
This long and bloody conflict was fought between an alliance of three Dwarven nations and a gigantic army of orcs, goblins, and giants.
The war was waged mercilessly for nearly 250 years; most of it fought deep underground or high up in narrow rocky mountain valleys.
Little quarter was asked or given, and there was terrible slaughter on both sides. The war was ultimately won by the dwarves, but at a horrific cost.
All three ruling clans were destroyed, and resulted in a new Kronehelm Clan which united the three dwarven realms into a new nation called Orrek.
The War began with a goblin invasion, led by a ruthless goblin tribal leader; Gordak the Merciless. He soon laid siege to the city of Arkan Feyr. This siege lasted for over five years. It was finally broken after a series of battles where the dwarves were victorious. Gordak and all five of his sons were slain in the siege and the battles that lifted it.
A few years later, Grumak the Skullcrusher; the grandson of Gordak, came of age and launched a new campaign with his own massive goblin army.
Grumak surrounded the city of Thürgen Feyr, which fell in 592/3, after a seventeen year-siege. The goblins then sacked the city, all slaughtered all its inhabitants.
Grumak killed King Kharghan the Luckless personally and stole his Val-Khûra.
60 Years later, the dwarvish hero Celathor the Avenger tracked down Grumak, slew him in battle, and recovered the stolen magical orb.
With the death of Grumak, the goblins flew into a rage and assembled an even larger army, along with their orc and giant allies.
In the year 655/3, the entire goblin army was annihilated at the Battle of The Fiery Gorge and the war came to an end.
Three Dwarf-kings were slain this bloody conflict: Celathor of Azkar, Goran the Steadfast of Chokar, and Vholnir Velenkhür were slain.
Legacy
The dwarves never fully recovered from the War of Sorrows.
All three northern Dwarf kings were slain, one of the greatest dwarf cities on Corwyn was destroyed, and immeasurable wealth and lives were lost.
The three northern dwarf-realms were so weak, in fact, that soon after the war's end, King Algathor the Uniter united them into the larger dwarf-realm of Orrek, a dwarven nation which endures to this day.
No one knows how many dwarves died during this war, but legend has it that fully one-third of the adult male dwarvish population was eliminated in two and a half centuries of relentless conflict.
Even thousands of years later, dwarvish hatred of the goblin races that oppressed and slaughtered them still burns strong today.
