History of the Wyrmskull Throne - D&D Lore

The Wormskull throne is a broad-seated and high arch-backed throne fashioned of polished obsidian. It rests on oversized feet which are the impaled skulls of four great elder blue dragons, their horns intact. Barely visible runes glisten in the carved obsidian, winking to life with blue energy when the throne's powers are active, and there is a indentation at the end of the right armrest, wherein should rest a ruling scepter of Shanatar, the ancient empire of all shielded dwarves. The throne is an artifact created by the dwarven god Dumithoyn, it exists and was created to mark a tremendous victory for the dwarven people against a city of soaring shadows, the larger settlement of an evil monster species called Cloakers beneath the Marching Mountains in the surface realm of Kelimshan. Ok, that was a lot to take in, so lets start off nice and simple. The dwarves arrived in the historical record on the world of Toril 17,496 years ago, this was 1600 years before the catastrophic elven high-magic ritual called the Sundering which created the Evermeet islands and broke the continent of Faerun into the form it remains in to this day. Perhaps it was this dramatic cataclysm that forced the dwarven species to migrate to the very top of the stone world below, but for the first dwarves, living in the upper dark and visiting the surface world was like building a base at Mount Everest and going for scouting missions on the moon. For thousands of years, their worldview was that things happening on the surface of the world were far less important than the exploration, wars and politics of the world below. Early dwarven society was a subterranean one, they were rarely seen on the surface. The dwarfs first showed up in the Yehamel Mountains and over the next thousand years migrated through the upper dark caves, caverns and river networks, with a large number settling and founding a mighty civilization within the Great Cavern of Berendin, located under the Sha Plains. Meanwhile, the elven civilization, largely ignored by the dwarves, plunged into four generations of unhinged conflict known as the Crown Wars, during which, 12,496 years ago, a dwarf champion known as the Crusader, Tark Shannat, departed the Great Cavern of Berendin for a new land far to the east. He left with his eight sons and discovered an excellent territory with incredible resources and opportunities for his people. But, it was dominated by a very evil and powerful species of non-humanoid creatures called Cloakers, allied with many evil dragons and other monsters of the world below. The main reason for this mass migration was the arrival of the mind flayers on Toril from the planet Glyph and their founding of the city named Orindal. The dwarves knew damned well that this was extremely bad news and were proven quite correct as the mind flayers had been formidable enemies of theirs over thousands of years since. Tark was called the Crusader for a damn good reason and his entire clan went to war against staggering odds, mind you, with the ancient and evil civilization of strictly hierarchical demon-summoning Cloakers, ruled by a group of twelve Cloaker lords known as the Shadow Orb Conclave. To this day, this era was known as the and it began 12,296 years ago. The battle where Tark Shanat became a legendary hero took place on a plateau called Ringlor Noroth that is both the site of the City of Soaring Shadows and something else, much older and very evil. You see, the ruling Shadow Orb Conclave took their orders from a mysterious being known only as the Emissary, who came from a twin city located in the exact Shadowfell dimension, and there is this massive, very ancient, broken stone arched bridge called the Shadowspan soaring over this lake, which some time long ago was connected to the other lake in the Shadowfell permanently. The Cloakers sought to rebuild this bridge, but the dwarves stopped it with extreme violence and the righteous power of their gods. On this site of victory, from the skulls of four ancient blue dragons that Tark had killed, a magical artifact was created and gifted to Tark and the bloodline of Clan Shanat. He founded the settlement of Al Latoran on this site, including the fabled Brightax Hall. According to the legend, on that spot where the hall is located, Tark and his sons battled four blue dragons and when Tark struck the fatal blow on the last of them, the entire rocky plateau the Cloaker city was built on rung out like a chiming crystal, and from the stone rose the obsidian throne, underneath Tark rising into the air and the four dragon skulls flew to the throne and were impaled by its four legs. From that day on, Tark's bloodline were the rulers of the new realm, known as Shanatar. So, a couple of very important details here, most of what is known about the throne and this ancient history comes from one book of collected oral history, so its not entirely accurate. There is a copy of this book in Candlekeep and some additional notes that have been added over the years by many great sages, what follows is all that is currently known about the throne. Let's hit you with a bombshell right from the get-go, shall we? Don't mention this around any shield dwarves, they will absolutely beat the ---- out of you for talking about this, but it is a fact. The bloodline of Tark Shanat, the ruling dynasty of Deep Shanatar and the only line of dwarves who can access the full power of the Wormskull throne are now all duergar, deep dwarves. None of the people now known as shield dwarves can sit on that throne and use all its powers and they absolutely must use one of the magical scepters of the kingdoms of Shanatar to do that safely. The fact that only duergar have the hereditary right to sit on the throne is absolute proof that they are all descended from a clan of dwarves who were enslaved and transformed by mind flayers in Deep Shanatar long, long ago. No living dwarf will ever admit that the deep dwarves are the rightful rulers of Shanatar, they consider them the enemy and usurpers of their ancient homelands, which is very sad that the bloodline of the great crusader should become so hated by all other dwarves. The mind flayers evil is truly insidious, because it was the horrific centuries of slavery clan duergar endured under the mind flayers which transformed them into the grey dwarves. One could argue that clan duergar have always been a pack of bastards and you would be right, but nobody deserves what happened to them. Brightaxe hall was carved out of the dead dragon's lair, it housed the wormskull throne and had a lower chamber with nine statues, one of Tark and one for each of his eight sons. The far side of the hall was fully open to reveal the impressive view right across the great rift of Delnidar and the site of the Delnidar span, the only bridge across the rift of Delnidar which stretched out for miles, many people think it is built by dwarves, but it is far older than their civilization. From there, Tark's eight sons all went off to found their own kingdoms as part of the greater Shanatar region. Each of these kingdoms have their own magical scepter, nobody knows when the scepters appeared, but it is likely they just popped out of the stone, more gifts from Dunethoin, right into the awestruck hands of each of Tark's offspring, who were all about a couple of centuries old by that stage by my calculation. It is the scepters which are the traditional symbol of each king's authority with the shield dwarves, not crowns or axes or shields as many seem to think these days. El Torrin and Brightaxe Hall remain the seat of ultimate authority for the clans of the shield dwarves, and within that city, the main worship was of Moradin and his wife, Berenar. But Tark's eight sons went off and founded eight other kingdoms and each was worshipped a different child of Moradin and Berenar. The total area covered by these extended dwarven charities is fairly vast, beneath what is now known as the Lands of Intrigue, beneath the nations of Amr, Tether, Kalimshan and the area covered by the Lake of Steam, which, when you consider that this is not just one level of the Underdark, it is a massive total of square miles of tunnels, seas, caverns, rivers and lakes, fungal forests and so on. The Shanatar region contains far more excavated tunnels and caverns than any of the dwarven lands far to the east in their original homelands. These many kingdoms are all exciting, but here is a brief overview of what they were like thousands of years ago and what their scepters looked like. Zotheran, known as the Adamant Kingdom, source of some of the most legendary giant slayers in history, housed in two massive caverns, the northern cavern is beneath the Cloud Peaks and the southern cavern is beneath the small Teeth Mountains of Amr. The south is highly volcanic and there is Aesir blood mixed with the southern clans named Azerkin. The northern clan are the Black Banners, counting many great scholars among them. Thanks to a connecting tunnel network passing right beneath the great trackless sea, the region was also home to some very aggressive scorpion folk and the elemental portal to the Now, something many don't know is this kingdom worshipped the Lady of Healing, Mercy and Love, the goddess Sarindla, and the dwarves of clan Azerkin were a slim, spirited and lustful folk, with tempers to match their bright red hair. Rumours persist that most of the folk of that kingdom eventually settled in the plane of fire. The ruling scepter of Zotheran, like all the scepters, is shaped much like a heavy war club fashioned from mithril, the rounded shaft as thick as a dwarf's forearm is topped with a thick, rounded disc and tapers down to end in a small knob, often with an inset jaw. The scepter is marked by the flaming needle symbol of Sarindla, on one side in the mark of Zotheran on the other, and is currently clutched to the breast of a dwarf skeleton within the mouth of a cavern, facing to the west in the outlook of the Farsea marshes high in the Stormhorn mountains. The cavern is very still and cold, no wind or animal ever disturbs that place. Next is Old Toxamarin, known as the Zardazzle Kingdom, now long emptied of the clans that settled there and worshipped the god Dumathoin, who created the Wormskull throne. It is fitting, with a god of mining and secrets, that Old Toxamarin was located a mile beneath the Serengard within the Marching Mountains in Kalimshan, in the bordering forest of Myr. It is located in an impressive cavern with a ceiling over a thousand feet high. These days, the realm is occupied by different races, the dwarves have long since departed. The ruling scepter of Old Toxamarin has the silhouette of a cut-faceted gem inside of a mountain that is Dumathoin's holy symbol, it shimmers like a beldurul within the firelight. The scepter is now thousands of miles from its home and now lies buried amid the rubble of Mithondas ruins near the Great Glacier. Then we have Torglor, the Silver Kingdom, located beneath the Snowflake Mountains which border Ahrn and Tethyr, so deep down, it is actually part of the Middle Dark's lair of the Greater Underdark. This ruin was, and probably still is, a treasure trove of dwarven artifacts as the clans who lived there were the worshippers of the unusual dwarven god Daerincr, an evil god, but wickedly clever when it comes to magic, trickery and cruelty. These clans almost never came up to the surface world and concerned themselves with the long, fruitless war with the mind flayers of Eryndil. Many weapons, still fully functional, bear the symbol of Torglor and the god Daerincr, a white swirling spiral. Towards the end of that kingdom's occupation of these caverns and tunnels, they had abandoned the worship of Daerincr in favour of Dagmarin Brightmantle and I suspect they departed the realms through portals to other dimensions long ago. The ruling scepter of Torglor, with its swirling spiral symbol, has been the property of the Halruin noble family of Reselsa for more than 500 years, whose main stock in trade has been scholarship and sage lore as well as magecraft. They guard this priceless artifact fiercely and will not part with it for even a king's riches. Karolnor is now a nation of trolls, sadly, but was once a great dwarven kingdom known as the Jewel Kingdom beneath the Troll Mountains on the northern border of the surface realm of Arm. It has an intricate network of tunnels and caverns at the border of the upper dark and middle dark, which once contained several cities well known for incredibly fine stone masonry. But there still stands an incredible dwarven statue, four thousand feet tall, carved into the side of Mount Barter in the Troll Mountains. The Karolnor dwarves were constantly defending their surface settlements and resources from giants and the cities have some truly exceptional stonework traps right out of the pages of Grimtooth's famous books on the subject. The dwarves there worshipped their brother of Dinkarazan, a fairly insane demigod, nonetheless, the paranoia of the people of Karolnor was well justified and it is true to say that they devoted their time to safety and security, like it was a religion, because it was. The ruling scepter of Karolnor is marked with one of the last remaining examples of the symbol of Dinkarazan, a ring of seven gems, what they nobody really knows, also, where the scepter currently is, nobody has any idea. Drakalor, the city of greed, was another thriving kingdom famed for its crafting and the bustling site of trade that accumulated huge wealth, but unfortunately fell victim to corruption and greed, which turned the place into a treacherous hive of backstabbing nobles and powerful assassin guilds dwelling under the cooled-in peaks of Tethyr. The Chondathans of early Tethyr were very familiar with the dwarven surface town of Rinoroth, which means place over enemy land in the dwarven tongue. It stands at one of the main access tunnels down to Drakalor, but has been abandoned, ruined for the last 124 years, occupied by quite a formidable red dragon named Charvekanathor. Charvek loves to beat up other dragons, eat as many orcs as he can find and relax on his sunny spot with the commanding view of the nearby realms, way up into the southwestern cooled-in peaks. Oh, and of course, his treasure hoard does indeed contain the ruling scepter of Drakalor, the bejeweled dagger mark of the god Apathor identifies the Drakalor scepter. Charvek's main rival, another red dragon wyrmed named Balagos, often fights with him over this territory, and a great blue dragon named Eryklathagra waits for the day that she can take one or the other out when they weaken themselves enough in one of their stupid fights. Charvek is difficult to beat though, he has an alliance of convenience with a formerly blue dracolich named Saphiraktar who has been teaching Charvek magic for over a century now, patiently turning the great red dragon into an agent of the Twisted Rune. If you want to track down the location of Enegith Yankee, actively hunting mind flayers in Faerûn, the red dragons will know where they are, but, good luck getting that information. Polararir, known as the Gold Kingdom, was a massive cavern realm in the middle of deep Shanatar beneath the surface realm of Tethyr, its people built their houses in a large ring on the cavern walls and grew plenty of food on the lush farms and fields surrounding a central lake. All clans of the shield dwarves had houses there and it was a true melting pot of ideas and cultural exchange from all the different kingdoms, flowing along with the constant outpouring of food exported all across of Shanatar, mainly a golden variety of lake kelp and all sorts of excellent cultivated mushrooms. The ruling scepter of Polararir also serves as the scepter of Barakir, carries the shield symbol of Largur, the duergar deity, and the scepter is currently in the hands of the war-king Olorn Ridagur, the duergar ruler of Underspires. He cannot access any powers beyond using it as a magical club, however, he is the last of the direct bloodline of Tark Shanat, one hundred generations later, but even so, the magic of the throne should still hold true. Barakir, known as the Iron Kingdom, was dominated by the shield dwarf clan Duergar, destined to be cut off from the other dwarven kingdoms and conquered by mineflayers who, over thousands of years of slavery, transformed clan Duergar's descendants into the duergar subrace, also known as grey or deep dwarves, but, five and a half thousand years ago, the duergar rebelled against the mineflayers and liberated themselves, creating new settlements further north, beneath the Orzrun mountains and also directly beneath the Great Glacier. Long before the mineflayers enslaved them, the clan duergar were a pack of bastards, Barakir originally housed families of many clans, but they left for other places as clan duergar became increasingly tyrannical. Even in its earlier centuries, Barakir had a fierce rivalry with the neighbouring kingdoms of Dracolor and Ultric Salmon, which were the closest neighbours and this erupted into open warfare during a terrible period known as the Spawn Wars, ten and a half centuries ago, where these monsters known as Deepspawn were bred and used to create clone armies of dwarves, clones slaughtering clones with the original dwarves commanding their bloodthirsty campaigns from their impregnable fortifications. Of course, the dwarven enemies, the mineflayers and drow took advantage of these conflicts and struck at the very heart of Shanatar, attacking Elatoran and taking the Wormscale throne, shocking the dwarven sub-kingdomsmen to finally unifying and taking back Elatoran in what is the Second Spider War, at the end of which, Barakir's inhabitants believed that Clan Duergar's king had the strongest claim to the throne of Shanatar, but, he was denied and Barakir once more withdrew from the affairs of Shanatar, a bitter and despotic realm doomed to its fate. Sondar, also known as the Seastar Kingdom, venerated the god Virgadane, the Merchant King, a god of luck, trickery, negotiation, sneaky dealings and wealth. Sondar was a city that bred merchants and was famed for its trade in exotic spices of the Underdark and surface world. It was some strange twists of fate that meant that the ruling sceptre of this long-lost kingdom should always be associated with spice trading in some small way, which is how it eventually came to light during a bar brawl in the Blue Badger Inn in the village of Toralf in northeastern Tethyr involving three adventuring bands, the Shield of the Highlands, the Company of the Anvil and three companions, Sorum Battlebellow, Odak Truesteel and Baffar of Clan Gelmren, who was on a quest to find the Wormscale throne. The ruling sceptre of Sondar had been taken from the tomb of a distant cousin to one of the last rulers of Shanatar, but it attracted the attention of the Cowled Wizards of Arm, who alerted Clan Gelmren in the first place, leading to their bar brawl and to it being stolen, teleported away by a sea elf king of all people, who was in possession of the Wormscale throne at the time, this is all covered in an old adventure module called the Wormscale Throne, set a long time before the throne showed up again in the campaign book Storm King Sondar. Kiltkazar, known as the Mithril Kingdom, is famous for its stone carvings and fantastic engineering, it is probably one of the most fortified and best defended cities in the Underdark and is still inhabited, its territory currently includes the locations of the old kingdoms of Barakir, Dracolor and Horelorar, Ultraxamun and Xokir, city of orbs. The ruling sceptre of Kiltkazar is the crossed axe symbol of the god Klagenden, the father of battle, unfortunately, the sceptre in possession of the Morkoth named Aksar Zairil, somewhere in the Sea of Fallen Stars. The sceptre of High Shanatar appeared later than the others, once the dwarves established cities on the surface of the Third Great Arrow of Shanatar in 7,616 years ago. The sceptre of High Shanatar bears the symbol of Thadhar the Disentangler, two crossed, scaled metal gauntlets ending in claws. Although primarily viewed as the patron of jungle dwarves, Thadhar was venerated by the deep-dwelling shield dwarves of Shanatar as the Lord of the Green Mantle, the god of the forests above, thus, High Shanatar was established as his domain. In addition, as the Disentangler was numbered as the ninth of the nine scions of the forge, it was appropriate that the ninth kingdom sceptre bear Thadhar's symbol. Then High Shanatar fell at the hands of the humans of Kalimshan 4,096 years ago. More pashas stole than murdered to claim this sceptre than any treasure since the claiming of the seven scimitars of Shanatar. Today, it lies beneath the surf's edge buried among the dried-bone beaches of Thordentor among the Nilanthra Isles. The Alatoran sceptre, kind of the one ring of the ruling sceptres, is easily distinguished from the others in direct comparison due to its darker, more reflective star-metal surface. The holy mark this sceptre carries is the hammer and anvil mark of Moradin, the Dwarf Father. It was this mark on the sceptre that rules them all that ended the factionalized clan-god structures and unified the worship of all the dwarven gods as a pantheon called the Moradin Sanin, unified under Shanatar. While the sceptre carries and shares the same powers as the other ruling sceptres, it also has three special powers with its star-metal form. If the sceptre is placed in the right armrest of the Wormscale throne, or held while seated in the throne, the seated figure mentally receives all the command words of the throne and the powers of the throne. If within five hundred feet of the Wormscale throne, the wielder of the Alatoran sceptre can activate and use the powers of the throne at a distance, operating its powers by remote control, the sceptre can only command the powers of the throne once the command words are known, so the sceptre wielder must have sat on the throne at least once to gain that knowledge. With one command word that has never been spoken aloud, the Alatoran sceptre has the power to actually call the Wormscale throne to its location. The sea-elf tyrant Ganthar Kroak recovered the sceptre from a shipwreck among the Haunted Plains early in the Eleventh Seiros War and wielded it proudly as a weapon of choice through their conflict for two centuries before ever learning of its true powers and legacy, which he saw as a means to further his plans of reforming the ruling class of sea-elves and the Wormscale throne and its ruling sceptre had been his best tools for manipulating surface folk to help him achieve that goal. But, he was brought down by a bunch of adventurers of course and the throne was sold to the storm giantess Neri for a considerable fortune, because she already owned the sceptre of Alatoran, which she had found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the trackless sea. Once she had the complete set, you could say, Neri had the throne magically enlarged and gave it to her husband, King Hekaton as a gift. Only a creature attuned to the ruling sceptre and in possession of it can harness the powers of the Wormscale throne, which has become the centrepiece of King Hekaton's throne room in the undersea citadel of Maelstrom. Fear of the throne's power has helped prevent evil giants from challenging or threatening Hekaton's leadership ever since. All of the sceptres have multiple magical powers, as does the throne, so let's learn what they are, or I will end up talking about ancient Dwarven history for the rest of the day. This information on the artifacts is much more detailed and accurate than you will find in the book titled Of the Clans and Clashes of Shanatar, written in the early 12th century Dale Reckoning by the Dwarven scholar Brith Tola of Clan Ironhelm in Mirabar. So, here goes. The sceptres all share a set of common powers and properties, they can be used as clubs, though they deal more damage than the average club and if wielded within 100 feet of the Wormscale throne, the magical damage bonus rises to plus six points, and this power is constant. With the knowledge of the other ten sceptres, the owner can perform one sending per day to each of the other sceptres. By mental command, the holder of the sceptre can receive the sending directly into their mind, silently, or have it broadcast aloud from the sceptre, and if no one is in contact with it, the message automatically broadcasts audibly for anyone to hear. Another command word causes the sceptre to glow, radiating a globe of energy, which then contracts into the sceptre, causing all within the globe to disappear. This globe extends to a 20 foot 5 radius from the sceptre and all living things and anything they carry on their bodies within that radius are teleported without error to within a 50 foot radius of the Wormscale throne. Given the stone's flight capability, the kings of Shannatar only use this power after sending to their Altoran sceptre for permission to enter the emperor's presence. This power can be used up to once per ten days. The Wormscale throne also homes in on the sceptres, and each of them chimes like a bell when they get pinged by the throne. Ok, so what are the powers of the actual throne? If someone of the bloodline of Tark Shannat touches the throne, they receive knowledge of all the artifacts command words instantly, as mentioned, the only people still of that bloodline are all Dwager, so it is most likely anyone unaware of this requirement will also be unaware that a ruling sceptre is also required, otherwise, touching the throne is going to trigger the usurper's field. This powerful force field raises and permeates the whole volume, paralyzing the usurper against the throne and allowing no speech or any movement beyond breathing. Someone outside of the field can attempt to transport them via magic, or if the person is wearing a ring of free action, hopefully, they can make a save against the paralysis to leap away from the field, otherwise they will be stuck there and it will remain active until a ruling sceptre is used to switch it off. If someone owning a ruling sceptre who knows how to use one sits on the throne, they can command the throne to hover a foot above any surface and fly around at will, they can also fly into solid stone, phasing into it and moving around like an earth elemental with no ill effect as long as they care to. They may command the throne to teleport to within 50 yards of any other ruling sceptre, unless the sceptre has been moved to another dimension or other plane of existence. The following powers can only be used by a Dwager who is holding the Altoran sceptre, or has slotted it into the armrest of the throne. They can teleport someone holding one or other of the ruling sceptres back to the location the sceptre holder just teleported from. They can command the dragon skulls to shoot bolts of lightning twice per day, so 8 bolts in total. But the most powerful ability of the dragon is the Dragonfield manifestation, where a massive blue dragon forms out of the force field energy surrounding the throne, and for all practical considerations, from a gaming point of view, the occupant of the throne is now piloting a force energy based dragon body 200 feet long and 80 feet tall for a total of 10 rounds during the day. It is very impressive and can be highly destructive. And, of course, as I mentioned, they can also do that remotely. Talking of destruction, the only way to destroy the Wyrmscale throne is by breaking at least five of the ten ruling sceptres simultaneously over the lethal to most beings within 20 feet, only those 60 feet away from the throne can even make a saving throw or suffer the full damage. If a drow sits on the throne, the throne shatters instantly to destroy the drow, but then reforms within a day unless blasted by blue dragon's breath. This action nearly occurred during the fall of Altoran as a drow sacrificed her life to break the throne and then her allied dragons blasted the pieces into the great breach, also known as the Rift of Delnir. The pieces reformed due to the equal sacrifice of the great-grandson of Tark Shannet, who leapt after the shattered throne and whose life-blood restored the throne as it lay in rubble far below. So, there we have it, the Dwarves of the Forgotten Realms have an ancient and incredibly rich history, it was a delight to delve deep into the earliest era of the origin of the Shield Dwarves and the duergar. Thanks to a viewer request from Chris for this topic, I am happy to help. As always, thanks for listening and I will be back with more for you, very soon.