Great Dwarven Empire

Summery
First of all the Great Dwarven Empire is actually a kingdom. The Great Dwarven Empire (GDE) is a kingdom run by mountain dwarves with the capital of Kyzyl. The main economy if the GDE is the mining and refining of metal. The dwarves are also expert craftsmen and make some of the finest weapons, armor, and tools in the world. Gold is also very important to the dwarves and is a large part of the economy. The King must be well known and a strong person and warrior, the king has absolute power over the realm and must deal with many rich bureaucrats to maintain the empire's power.

Founding
The Great Dwarven Empire was first conceived by King Randall II when he heard of human city states banding together to take on larger dwarven cities. He decided that he should bring all dwarven settlements to create a standing army and then to also corner the gold market and build up the wealth of his home city of Kyzyl. King Randall II started by bribing the lords of border cities to human areas to support alliances. With the growing human cities more and more cities started to ask for the protection. Randal II glad-fully gave it in exchange for total loyalty to the new kingdom. He named it the Kingdom of Kyzyl. Eventual King Randal II died but his new kingdom fell peacefully into his son's hands. King Thazkar wanted to continue to gain more power and territories. The threat of war brought even more provinces into the kingdom's dominion. After getting arctic and hill dwarven settlements into the alliance he declared it a grand empire, the Great Northern Empire.

The Golden Years
Two kings latter King Thanier decided that the uneasy alliances should be strengthened by making a standard set of laws that each area must follow. Then he declared that to maintain a standing army he must receive a large tax from each lord. Next he decided that the alliance should be determinant so he divided all of the city state into duchies and declared lords of regions that would be loyal to him. Any resistance was met by a large garrison being stationed in the city. The people rejoiced for they new that they were protected and were able to make money securely. The gold prices were then regulated by the king and the whole county was then making money from the gold mining industry. The army was strengthened and the navy was founded. The government started to build up the nations infrastructure and make sure all cities had the resources they needed to grow. Investments were also made in research, exploration, and education. These were known as the Golden Years.

The Dread Years
After King Thanier died his son King Boufors wanted to be a scholar and decided to leave the Empire in the hands of his advisers while he attended a wizarding school. They messed with the system already in place. It slowly caused the gold prices to fall. The economy started to get worse and the government cut spending and reduced the size of the army. Eventually explores found the Pyre of Magic and attracted the attention of the Warlocks of the Dread Keep. The Warlocks summoned all of the magic they could muster and raised the largest army ever created, and then marched on the dwarves. At the same time some of the Arctic Dwarves War of Independence was started. The main arctic dwarf settlement of Valletta broke away from the Empire. After the end of the Great Wars of Dwarves and Warlocks the population and treasuries were depleted but the dwarves won. During the war King Boufors came back and lead his people to victory. After the war Boufors went back to the ways of his father and the dwarves started to prosper again, but by then the humans had gotten more powerful then the dwarves The dwarves would then always struggle to reach the same population that they had before the war.