The Plain of Stone Hills is where dwarves live. The southern part of the kingdom has complex terrain. In addition to plains, there are also hills, mountains, swamps and other terrains. Humans occupy the largest plain area, while the swamps are dominated by trolls and lizardmen. , and the Stone Hill Principle is a mixed area of hills and plains. There are not only places where food can be grown, but also large and small mines, enough for dwarves to continuously mine.
The relationship between dwarves and humans is normal. Humans also had the idea of the original mineral vein of Shiqiu at the beginning, but dwarves are really difficult to deal with. These guys are natural heavy infantry, and their height is generally around 1.4 to 1.5 meters. But the arms are generally thicker than human thighs, and they basically grow horizontally. The strength of dwarves is even stronger than that of orcs. Dwarves holding warhammers and wearing armor have stronger individual combat capabilities than orcs, and there is not much difference between men and women. Everyone can wear armor and go into battle. More than one million dwarves can dispatch half a million armored soldiers, armed like hedgehogs.
The key point is that the fertility rate of dwarves is not high, the population has always remained within a stable range, and there is not much expansion ambition. There is not much conflict with humans. Communication is mainly transaction. Over time, both parties have acquiesced in each other. The presence.
The dwarves need the wine and some commodities provided by the human world, while the humans need the ores from the Stone Hill Plains and the armor and weapons made by the dwarves. There are occasional conflicts, but peace is the mainstay in the long term. With these foundations here, Pa Lei sent someone with some gifts this time, hoping to win over the dwarves as a force against the orcs.
The main forces of the three major corps in the south have all been transferred north. In addition to the garrison, only the private armies of the nobles are left in the local area. In addition to the armed forces under Pare, the garrison corps in the major cities still have some combat effectiveness. In addition to constantly strengthening himself, Pare In addition to the strength of his men, he also hopes to increase his power against the orcs by attracting races like dwarves. However, the dwarf still had some doubts for the moment and did not respond to Pare’s kindness for the time being.
At this time, in the Plain of Stone Hill, the dwarf royal court was discussing the news received from the human messenger.
This royal court is completely located in a mountain range, and the sound is inexplicably amplified here. Coupled with the unique loud voice of the dwarves, their conversation is like a quarrel.
“King! If what humans say is true, we may still need to cooperate with humans!”
“Hmph! These humans are very cunning. If you cooperate with them, you will be afraid of being cheated.”
“I think these humans are pretty good, and the wine they send is pretty good!”
“GuluGulu…”
After another gulp of wine, it was strange that these dwarves could drink in such a serious occasion as the royal court meeting.
“Brown! Leave some for me!”
“Okay, what does it look like? If you want to drink, let’s talk about it before drinking!”
After chatting for a while, the dwarf king really couldn’t stand it anymore. He patted the chair and stopped the patriarchs who were still drinking.
The political system of the dwarves is rather strange. Although there is a dwarf king, it is divided into seven major clans.
The Dwarf King is elected among the chiefs of the seven major clans. The current Dwarf King Norton was previously the chief of the Blackstone Clan. The reason why he was elected as the Dwarf King is also very simple. He is quite reliable. , at least I won’t drink during meetings.
With such a chaotic political system, the dwarves have never had any major civil strife, which can be regarded as the advantage of this group of people being relatively brainless. Normally, he would turn a blind eye when the clan leaders of various clans would have a drink at a meeting. After all, he was greedy himself, but now when they were discussing such an important matter, this group of people also drank, which made Norton a little angry. .
After realizing that Norton was really angry, the following dwarf patriarchs calmed down a little and turned their energy back to the meeting.
“King, I don’t think we need to pay attention to humans. Regardless of whether orcs are coming or not, even if they drive away humans and become the masters outside, it has nothing to do with us dwarves. If they dare to attack Shiqiuyuan, , we have to ask if the war hammer in our hands will agree!”
“That’s right! King, let the humans and orcs fight. This has nothing to do with the dwarves.”
“At most, for the sake of the wine, we can give them some weapons and armor.”
The forging ability of dwarves is superior to that of humans. They are almost all born blacksmiths. Their thick arms are much more advantageous than humans in wielding sledgehammers. In addition to being more skilled in skills, they also master certain metals. The formula makes the weapons made by dwarves sharper and the armor stronger, which is very popular among humans.
“If you think about it more carefully, orcs may not be as easy to talk to as humans. Orcs are not only enemies of humans. Five hundred years ago, orcs were enemies of dwarves. If orcs came, our dwarves’ lives would be worse than they are now. Even sadder.”
“Does the king actually know what happened five hundred years ago? What happened five hundred years ago?”
“Five hundred years ago, the people living outside the Stone Hill Plain were not humans, but a group of orcs. At that time, the dwarves not only had to build weapons and equipment for the orcs for free, but also handed over food to the orcs. The most egregious thing was, Even the brewed wine must be handed over.”
More than five hundred years ago, before Aragorn was born, the Orc Kingdom was at its peak, with a population four to five times that of today. It received a large amount of elven heritage, and regarded many races, including humans and dwarves, as After all, in the period of low magic, a fertile and strong race like the orcs has a great advantage. If humans don’t produce a cheating Aragorn, the orcs can continue to dominate.
“What, you have to hand over the brewed wine, this is too much!”
“Yes, we don’t even have enough wine to drink!”
“If there is such a thing, beat him up!”
The dwarves, who were initially uninterested, suddenly became angry after hearing the end, as if they were ready to fight the orcs.
Only Norton frowned and looked at the speechless expression below. He really wanted to set a rule that no dwarfs would be allowed to drink during the meetings in the royal court.
“I have sent the human envoy back for the time being. What I mean is that if we don’t want the orcs to defeat the humans, then we must be ready to send troops.”
“But, King, without the king’s shield, the armies of the seven clans cannot leave the Plain of Stone Hills.”
After talking for a long time, a sober dwarf finally thought of the key to the problem. This is a secret that only the top dwarves know. The dwarves were cursed by the elves. The dwarf army cannot leave until someone picks up the dwarf king’s shield. Otherwise, the entire race will suffer disaster.
“I have been thinking about it for so long, and I always feel that the elves lied to us about this matter. The elves just want us dwarves to stay in the Stone Hill Plains to build weapons for them.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Our Ax and Hammer clan has been passing down this rule since our ancestors… our fathers. There is absolutely no lie.”
“Yes, the armies of the seven clans cannot leave the Plain of Stone Hill without the appearance of the true king who takes up the king’s shield.”
“Over the years, the only ones recorded to have picked up the King’s Shield were elves, and now the elves are all extinct…”
Norton is slightly higher than the other dwarves. He has vaguely realized that the dwarves seem to have been deceived by the elves. Although he has not replied to Parley’s envoy for the time being, he is actually inclined to send troops to cooperate with humans. Now He was doing work for the other dwarf chiefs.
But the simpler the race, the greater the reverence for tradition. The dwarf patriarchs like these have not thought about why only elves have picked up the dwarf king shield. They only know that tradition is tradition and cannot be violated. , Norton said that everything else was fine, and when the troops were raised, everyone shook their heads like a rattle.
Norton has no choice but to ask each clan to build more equipment suitable for human sizes, hoping that humans can sustain themselves in front of the orcs for a while longer.
Parley, who is still sending envoys to persuade the dwarves to send troops, does not know that his plan is blocked by an inexplicable tradition…