Dwarven Dominion

The largest of the Young Realms, the only true empire of the Old Continent, the Dominion's reach can be felt in every corner of the world.

Early History
Once the hill dwarves of Dorahl and the mountain dwarves of Btharmaz were one people, but centuries of feuds and infighting led to mistrust between the dwarves, and the two realms separated. Using this division the Imperium conquered both. Unlike other realms the dwarven nobility and the merchant class were allowed to keep their titles and privileges in order to preserve the precious knowledge of dwarven craftsmanship. Meanwhile, the Imperium hunted down the remaining members of both royal families to ensure the loyalty of the new provinces. They thought they extinguished both lines, but one member of each line survived. Fate (or maybe Moradin himself) brought them together and the two exiled royal lines merged into one, the Ironfist line. When the Imperium fell Thorin Ironfist the true heir to both Dorahl and Btharmaz revealed himself and after five years of fighting unified the two dwarven kingdoms, forming the Dwarven Dominion.

Expansion and Imperialistic Ambitions
During the Succession Wars the Dominion conquered the newly formed human kingdom in Minthras and pushed their borders as far as the Silverlode River (under the pretext of pushing back the demon horde). Soon after that Thorin Ironfist crowned himself Emperor of Aegeron and claimed all of the continent as his dominion (Note that no other realm recognizes his imperial title and often refer to him as High King Thorin). He spent the last fifty years consolidating his power and building up his armies. But everyone knew, war with the Dominion was inevitable. The match that ignited this powder keg was the Reaton takeover of Adestia in A.I. 487 that presented an opportunity too good to pass up. Ironfist ordered his legions to annex Adestia, which led to the Silkstone War, the largest conflict in Aegeron for half a century.

Economy
The chaos stemming from the Succession Wars stopped trade and industry throughout the continent; as cities burned a lot of precious knowledge was lost. This is why the Dominion is the only realm that still has the knowledge and expertise to craft new adamantine armors and cannons infused with magic. These technologies give enormous advantage to the armies of the Dominion, their adamantine covered warriors (often called metalheads by outsiders) and powerful cannons dominate the battlefield.

Life and Laws in the Dwarven Dominion
The formation of the Dominion was not without bloodshed as Ironfist's ancestors were driven out by the Imperium four centuries before and many considered such ancient claims meaningless and thus refused to support him. But not the clergy of Moradin and the traditionalists who rallied behind him and after a seven years of civil war Ironfist emerged victorious. He exiled those who resisted him (many of whom found their home in Cascadia or formed enclaves in major cities like Stoneharbor) and put loyalists in key positions. This had the unintended consequence of dwarwen society becoming even more conservative than before. Soon these new leaders pushed to return dwarven society to the golden age before the Imperium, to the great dwarven ideals: ''Work hard! Live with honor! Clan comes first!''

The Dominion rules over the lands of several ancient kingdoms: the dwarven realms of Btharmaz and Dorahl, the human realms of Minthras (birthplace of the Imperium) and (northern part of) Adestia. As these lands were once part of the Imperium the population of their cities are quite diverse (except the underground dwarven cities, where surface-dwellers rarely want to live), while the rural areas are mainly homogeneous (mostly humans with elven and halfling enclaves).

The Dominion learned a great deal from its predecessor, the Imperium, and Thorin Ironfist implemented a set of rules to enforce equality in front of the law for all races (similar to the Imperial Law, but due to traditionalist pressure drows are exempt while goblins and kobolds are considered animals and have no right). Also, unlike the old Imperium, dwarves find slavery abhorrent and leave the common folk mostly alone after conquest (the Imperium was known to forcefully recruit or enslave commoners during the Century of Conquest).

Despite these efforts the Dominion struggles to gain sympathy among non-dwarves for several reasons:
 * 1) While the Dominion treats the inhabitants of newly conquered lands fairly well, their laws enforce a conservative dwarven mentality in every aspect of daily life (e.g. enforced seniority when handing out promotions, the head of a household has absolute power over their relatives)
 * 2) Even though the laws themselves do not discriminate based on race, the conservative dwarven officials (judges, tax collectors etc.) certainly do. Many traditionalist dwarves believe that the Dominion should be "Dwarves first". This sentiment is mainly fed by deep resentment towards the old Imperium's practice of using the wealth of the dwarven realms to support other struggling provinces (for some reason they never diverted resources away from the Imperial City...) But these grudges are basically incomprehensible to shorter-lived species (e.g. humans) because for them these things are mostly forgotten, ancient history, irrelevant to the present. Meanwhile, the longer-lived elves and gnomes think the dwarves obsess too much about past grievances.
 * 3) It took many years for the conservative dwarves in the Dominion to realize that they have a serious "image problem" with the rest of the continent. By their nature dwarves are not inherently charming or convincing, which sets them up for a bad start. The conquest of Minthras and norther Adestia did not help either, and the dwarves were naive enough to think that treating the conquered "honorably" should earn them a good reputation. Meanwhile other forces (e.g. Reaton Reds, realms supporting the Status Quo) took great effort to spread negative propaganda about the "atrocities" carried out by the dwarves (both real and made up).