Notes

The apocalypse did not come with portents such as darkened clouds, blood moons or any other one thing. Instead it came from the very own hands of Magic users.

In their folly and arrogance they started the War to End All Wars. Great Magicks were flung across the world at the enemies of these arrogant mages. Entire cities were reduced to ash and rubble.

But it all came to an end when someone cast the Final Spell. No one knows now who cast it, but its effects were undeniable. The earth shook and cracked apart, seas boiled away, mountains were reduced to rubble.

This spell went on for centuries and all life would have been snuffed out if not for one race's intervention.

The Elves. The Elves had stepped up, becoming the shepherds and protectors the peoples needed to survive. During the Great Change when the Final Spell tore the world asunder and re made it multiple times it was they who used their magics to protect others.


Soon the world settled down, the landscapes no longer shifting and roiling with latent magic, but the trials of the world were not over, for the Gods had left.

When the Gods no longer listened to the cries of their peoples it was the Elves who insisted that they must instead make their own fate now.

For centuries the Various races wandered, or in the Dwarves case, took shelter in their mountains, now protected with elven sorcery. And in those centuries the elves interbred with various races, mixing their bloodlines, until it seemed they had all vanished one day, no one recalling what happened to them. Leaving behind a legacy of bastard children and heroism, soon fading into myth and legends.

The centuries following this would be known as "The Great Migration" to some. To the Dwarves it would become known as "Re-Emergence."
It's supposed to be a series of stories told from the pov of different races,. The first details the Re-Emergence of the Dwarves.
Instead of typical Dwarf stuff I went with this as their culture

Hoplite Dwarfs
Based on the greeks
The mountain they sequestered away in had low Iron content, but plenty of other metals such as tin and copper.
Thus making Bronze
Silver as well, tin is always found next to silver and vice versa
At first it was tough going, low supplies, low morale, until after a few centuries some miners found this
An underground fungal forest with its own ecosystem

After they found that old businesses started booming again. Many different fungi were found, including pseudo wood, some that emit a wax like substance that when treated can turn into candles
Now, after centuries without booze, they sort of kicked the habit, but with the discovery of the forest that changed some what. However their taste buds had changed. Instead of hard ales and lager they instead fermented wines and drank in more moderation.
As the millennia passed their culture changed to what it is now. As of Today, many Nobles are clamouring to open the Mage Gate, to see what the new world is like, others are not so sure, they have a whole cave system of miles upon miles of unexplored fungal forests with known and unknown threats.

So the king
 King Endrin

He proposes a compromise. Clear the Forest of all threats, and with their back secured the mage gate will be opened
A few decades after the forest was found some bad stuff came pouring out of it

Troglodytes, mutated people who fled into caves to escape destruction, slowly changed over time and devolved. A vast horde of them attacked the mountain from the forest. Every now and again a raid comes through to bother the dwarfs. They're cannibalistic, so with a foodsource in the dwarfs they continue to be a nuisance and prevent explorers fully mapping the forest.
SO the king is going to lead an army into the forest to exterminate them and any other threat that resides in it, while also mapping it.


How the Dwarf military works.

A thousand years after the sealing of the Mage Gate, a great riot had started. Now known today as the Booze Riot. It happened when the last keg of ale was spilled over a dispute, hundred of dwarfs took to the streets lashing out in their anger, many pointed the crowd at the King, his political adversaries seeking to topple him from his throne.

Not many Dwarfs were warriors in these days, but much equipment did exist, such as weapons, armours and other such things, but with so few to use them, it seemed the horde would surely breach the Royal Clan Hall. Instead, the king called on all loyal citizens to arm themselves, opening his own armoury, and instructing them to do the same. Soon, a great throng of dwarfs had mustered, miners, potters, butchers, scholars. Dwarfs from all walks of life, taking up what weapons they could so that they could protect their king.

A small battle followed, with relatively few casualties, neither side wanting to harm the other with the loyalists coming out on top. The lead rioters were gathered up and executed, including some of the kings political rivals. However, now with no Booze to keep them occupied, the king had to come up with something else. So he used the riot as inspiration. Now there is a long tradition of the Citizen Soldier, each male Dwarf, from the ages sixteen to six-hundred and fifty, must take up a spear and shield, and practice no less than four times a week.