The Lost Delve

Over 18000 years ago, Dwarves from the Waking Delve set out into the world to establish a new Delve. The second such group to depart the Waking Delve, they sought a great mountain peak under which they would establish their new home. The first group had followed the mountain range which contained the Waking Delve until they discovered another great peak at the northwestern end of the range. This group set out in a different direction - following the seacoast to the north and east. Soon they came across a lone mountain. It did not appear to be volcanic - Dwarves understood volcanoes - so it was odd to find a single peak standing alone at the edge of the sea. But it was a massive mountain - large enough for a good-sized Dwarven city, and so the Coast Delve was founded. For 16000 years, Dwarves would live under this mountain - mining in the depths of the world to seek the precious metals and gems that Dwarves coveted, and hollowing out the peak itself to shape a great city.

The Fall of the Delve

Then the Great Strife came. The god war... the time when the gods walked the world and wreaked havoc... would see the downfall of the Coast Delve. The sages argue over which gods were responsible, but all agree that it must have been the gods themselves that fought where the Delve stood. For now, nothing remains of the Delve. In fact, nothing remains of the mountain itself that once contained the Delve. The entire peak - many cubic miles of earth and stone, and every living creature upon and within it - was swallowed up by the world. Where the towering peak once stood, only rocky rubble along a harsh seacoast remains. To the north, the rocky rubble eventually gives way to dry savanna. But there is no trace of the Delve, nor of the tens of thousands of Dwarves that called it home.

Speculations

In the two thousand years since the Great Strife ended, the Dwarves have tried twice to send explorers to learn more about the fate of the Delve - now called the Lost Delve - and its people. Neither group returned. There are rumors of other adventuring parties that have also attempted to find the location of the fallen city which some speculate remains intact, but now buried deep beneath the surface of Cartyrion. Many of these speculations also believe that the creatures that live there are not the Dwarves who originally called it home. Some believe that the powers that sunk the Delve also twisted the spirits of those Dwarves - and now they are something else... something more sinister. Others believe that once the Delve was sunk, it was exposed to the deep caverns filled with terrible monsters of the dark. Surely by now those horrid creatures have overrun what was once a great Dwarven city. Still others say the city simply is no more. That the mountain collapsed in its entirety and whatever remnants remain are broken and buried deep beneath the rocky plain that marks where the mountain once stood. Perhaps some day, a successfull expeditiion will return with answers.