The Dwarven power, the city states of the Khareich are a subterranean network of great fortresses and citadels that act as a buffer to the eastern wastes in the great ranges of the Efhir mountains. Proud, stoic and militaristic, the Dwarves of the Khareich consider themselves the true homeland and caretakers to dwarfish ideals.

 

Thoroughly uninterested in matters outside their immediate sphere of influence, they often look down (or up) on Dwarves who live above ground for betraying their heritage, even though they still consider them misguided kin. Whilst insular and some would argue secretive, the Khareich has an unusual relationship with the small city state nations that make their home in the peaks above their cities. Mutual trade, respect and sometimes even military aid is exchanged between the Peak Cities against their common foes from the lands-beyond in the east.

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All citizens of the Khareich have mandatory military training. Due to their proximity to the eastern wastes and occasional border skirmishes with the Bacheaux Republics, their more fearsome and unpredictable forces are distributed often as small elite warbands known as Rakreigers.

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Meanwhile, its stonemason artisans, brewers and engineering feats surpass that of the Valen and Bachenaux. In these fields, the Khareich is technologically the most sophisticated civillisation in the known world, it suffers however from an intractability and reluctance to absorb new or external ideas. They believe their methods are the truest, that its metallurgy and production are be the best. However, it is mass produced and often unimaginative in design and suffers from a lack of innovation.
 

Similarly, an almost intractable political system of familial debts, red tape and loyalties make the nation very slow to negotiate with, as each party must be consulted in turn, and each concern addressed. It has sometimes taken decades to resolve matters that would take only months due to the complex fealty system that keeps the Khareich together. The machine is efficient by Dwarven standards, but slow and meticulously addresses each point of a treaty with many weeks dissecting individual paragraphs. It is not uncommon for foreign diplomats to be recalled due to the expiration of their term and replaced with a new negotiator, sometimes requiring the process to begin all over again. Any agreements finally entered into however are binding and the oaths made intractable, like stone, and may last for hundreds of years.

Many small nations have been surprised to find armies of Rakreiger suddenly appear in defense of their lands owing to treaties signed hundreds of years ago and long forgotten.

Trade is often handled by guilds, allowing for far quicker transactions, standard agreements and yearly tithes, but even these often require long standing friendships between both parties and striking a new agreement can be as infuriating as dealing with the leadership of the Khaiseraks.