ANTHROPOLOGIST Explores Dun Morogh and the Dwarves! Episode 1 (World of Warcraft)

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:08]Hi there, I'm Mal and welcome to the World Scribe. As an archaeologist and anthropologist, I love analyzing the things people have made. In this series, I am applying that lens to the world of Azeroth. To an anthropologist, a fictional world is more than just a setting. It is a deliberate expression of culture filled with both intentional design and accidental artifacts. We aren't looking at the lore found in novels or elsewhere. We're here to analyze the game world and its non-player people. We're going to be relying fairly strictly on in-game evidence from buildings to NPC dialogue and environmental storytelling rather than using more curated external materials. These external sources often do greatly expand on the lore, but we want to focus on the society we see constructed inside the game world and minimize those preconceptions. While dwarves in fantasy may have a long line of tropes and stereotypes, we want to see what they actually have to say about themselves and what their in-game portrayal tells us. Today we're beginning our exploration of Dunar Rogue, the home of the Bronzebeard Dwarves as it existed following the Cataclysm. Someday soon, TM, we may be looking at this region from a more classical view, but it will not be today. And if you enjoy this anthropological approach to gaming, please consider giving us a like, a subscribe, and let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. It all helps us immensely as we build this series.

[00:01:39]Dun Maro is the cold mountainous homeland of the Bronzebeard clan. As mentioned, here lies the entrance to the mighty underground city of Iron Forge, their capital. But today, we will be looking at a small isolated valley known as Cold Ridge. Let's set a small amount of context so we at least understand the basics of where we're starting. Dwarves are members of the Alliance and have long been allies of the human kingdoms, especially of Stormwind. At this point in time, the dwarves have just undergone some significant political upheaval. An expedition returned from the frigid farthest north reaches of the world, the Titan facility of Ulawir. This expedition brought back many secrets.

[00:02:23]But unfortunately, one of these also had the fun side effect of helping King Magny erect a new diamond statue of himself. While a nice statue for property value, this did lead to political turmoil as his aranged daughter Moira returned with an infant Dark Iron son to claim the throne. In the ensuing shouting match, a loose council of three hammers was created to keep civil war from occurring. The three main clans, the Bronzebeard, the Wild Hammer, and the Dark Iron, will share power for the time being. How stable and how successful this council will be remains to be seen. Dun Maro is a reasonably sheltered region all things considered. The mountains rise out of the sea to the north, the west, and to the south, with only the eastern edges of Dunro bordering other territories.

[00:03:13]Straight to the east, we can find Loadon, a territory of the dwarves and generally quiet hinterland. To the northeast, we can find the wetlands at the extent of Bronzebeard control and currently experiencing a bit of a water damage problem. Looming to the southeast, we can find the Searing Gorge, part of the homeland of the Dark Iron and an ominous threat at this point in time. However, Dunaro is relatively insulated from the threats of that fiery region, protected by its frigid peaks.

[00:03:44]The landscape is rough, icy, and filled with glacial lakes and scree. Traversing this terrain is all but impossible for anybody not as hardy as the dwarves and their innate frost resistance. 1% boys, we're ready for Nox Ramis. Seemingly isolated dwarven towers mark many of the peaks and mountain sides, hinting at the extensive subterranean network below.

[00:04:09]The dwarves seemingly need not traverse the surface if they do not wish to, though there are also numerous settlements and holes with entrances to the surface. The dwarves themselves are also quite interesting. Their recent history as of this point in time has given them some more context for their own history with the Titans and origins as Earth. Though it is somewhat unclear how widespread or available this knowledge is in game. They have the aforementioned frost resistance, a small number for game mechanics, but a bit of flavor we can draw upon. They also have the passive might of the mountain, increasing the power of their critical strikes, suggesting that dwarves are also quite strong for their short stature. They also have the explorer passive, representing their strong cultural drive for understanding their own past and origins, giving them a little bonus to the now relatively defunct archaeology skill. That's just a little too real for me, you know. Last, but certainly not least, they have the stone form ability, cleansing themselves of most ailments and reducing physical damage taken for a short time.

[00:05:21]Presumably, this is drawing upon their iron constitution and long-lost earth and nature to fortify their bodies. Our investigator for today looks to have appeared in the middle of an assault by Trogs on a group of dwarven mountaineers. We have Joran Irontock, local mountaineer captain, shouting at us, but of course, we're going to take a peek around first and eventually get back to him and his trog pile. The immediate area is indeed under assault from those rock jaw trogs. We can see a large number of these dwarven mountaineers holding them off. I assume we are here as some sort of militia member or emergency response. Cold Ridge Valley lies around us. This isolated area in the southwest of the mountains.

[00:06:04]The snow-drenched pine trees reach upward with impressive size. Flurries trickle downwards adding to the light carpet around us. This is certainly not an environment that everyone could thrive in. Luckily, dwarves are naturally resistant to the frost, though we can still feel its bite. I do wonder if the dwarves, at least the bronzebeards, have naturally gravitated towards these cold regions to capitalize on the natural protection it offers them from outside threats. If that is the case, we still have some frosty neighbors to deal with, it seems. The immediate area appears to be some sort of depot or staging point for wagon trains. We can see several of the vehicles around as well as many crates of supplies. Just up the hill, we can see what looks to be the entrance to a dwarven hold, though we should probably see the neighbors off before heading up there. We check in with Doran Irontock, seeing as he is entertaining no small number of trogs. He tells us that we are a strongl looking warrior and we need to lend a hand. Interesting. He certainly expects that we will fully commit to helping him as a social norm, not just asking us for help. He further clarifies that an intense earthquake recently hit the territory and that it shook the trogs out of the ground. His troops are holding them off for now, but could certainly use a hand. That mention of an earthquake is an opportunity for us to hear about how the dwarves respond to such emergencies. So, we'll be keeping an eye out for more information on that.

[00:07:38]Finally, Jordan tells us that we need to do our part. Head just south of this depot and start swinging at the trogs threatening his mountaineers.

[00:07:48]Specifically, he tells us to dig his mountaineers out of trouble, which is fun phrasing. While we do our part, let's pick some of this apart and get some initial thoughts and start putting together some hypotheses. First and foremost, these mountaineers are a revealing little look at at least one portion of dwarven military tactics.

[00:08:07]They appear to be moderately armored troops wielding a mixture of pikes and early rifles or blunderbes. Our sample size is quite low, but so far having a pike andshot troop setup would be a hilarious inspiration for the dwarves.

[00:08:22]These troops do look to be more of a response force though. Between their title as mountaineers and Joran's concern for them being in direct combat, he suggests they might be more of a scouting or garrison force. and they are certainly getting as good as they're giving to these trogs. Another early hypothesis here is the focus on community among the dwarves. Again, this is early yet, but Joran has twice now pushed us to help him with appeals to doing our part specifically for the community and this being a societal obligation. Obviously, they are under attack and looking for help, but the specific ways Joran phrased that request are the notable part here. He wasn't shouting, "Help! Help! We need help. The trogs are bonking our noggin." He was specifically requesting we assist them under a social obligation. Do our part for the community. We'll see where this thread goes since it can reveal a lot about all sorts of other social obligations and about community management as well. For their part, those trogs look to be big, burly humanoids, presumably a mostly subterranean society based on Joran's words and their name, Trogs. I am assuming this is drawing on the word troglodite, a caved dwelling species. Of course, the phrase also has other connotations, especially for the caveman stereotypes that seem to be the template for the trogs as well, given their bone or stone clubs. That seems a bit direct.

[00:09:50]We've cleared through some of that threat for now and taken the extreme pressures off of the mountaineers right here. Doran tells us we did impressive work calling us latte and that his troops can hold the perimeter for now.

[00:10:02]He rewards us with some spare mountaineering equipment rather than coin or reputation. We'll keep an eye on this theme as well. Evidently, it will be handy for the more important task he is about to ask of us. Joran knows a thing or two about trogs. They follow the biggest and strongest. And we can see the big boys hanging out in the back there. The closest thing they have to leaders. If we go and take them out, it will show them what it means to mess with the sons of Iron Forge. All righty.

[00:10:34]Clearly, the dwarves have dealt with Trogs before, and this is a continuing conflict of sorts. Joran is once again drawing on that community theme in tasking us with this assault, referencing the Sons of Iron Forge that presumably includes us as a Bronzebeard dwarf. Nearby, a dwarf named Sten Stoutarmm calls us over. He doesn't need our marshall expertise, but rather our courage. The mountaineers, as he explains, are trained to protect the village from the occasional wolf attack, not an all-out trogboning. So, we were correct in our initial thoughts on the mountaineers. They are more of a scouting and light garrison force, not frontline combatants normally. Further, Sten tells us that many of their best are wounded and exhausted, and he needs us to head out into the battlefield below and patch them up. As we do our best Andrew Garfield impression on Popsicle Ridge here, let's refine our initial thoughts. We know the mountaineers are not a primary combat force, so clearly this attack was a surprise that is straining their lighter combatants. That earthquake must have been a big shock, pun fully intended, and only these mobile troops were available to respond. They certainly seem like a formal trained organization, not an independent militia or something similar. Indeed, as we patch up these mountaineers, they state that they owe us one. It seems that the Trogs strike with a lot of physical force, but either they weren't going for the kill or the dwarves are as tough as steel. might be both since not a single mountaineer seems to have fallen, only gotten wounded. Towards the back of the field, we can find the much larger Rockjaw goons that are theoretically the leaders of this operation. As we begin our assault on the first gooner, it says something interesting. Why you break our home? The next goon we degoon says something similar. You break our cave, I break your skull. As does the next trog cave. All gone. You pay for this. It seems the Trogs suffered pretty badly from the earthquake and for whatever reason blame the dwarves for it. I wonder if they have some sort of history with the dwarves attacking or destroying their homes in the past if they're so convinced that the dwarves did it this time. It also sounds like they have been forced out of their homes out of desperation by the earthquake. There seems to be a pretty severe misunderstanding here on both sides of this specific situation, but also like both sides have a history of conflict with the other. The dwarves have described the trogs as barbarous brutes.

[00:13:04]While the trogs seem to be pretty convinced of the dwarves hostility, we return to Sten Stoutarmm having patched up most of the mountaineers. He comments that we may have a future in first aid if we're into that sort of thing. Not sure he's seen all the latest updates there, but otherwise has nothing else for us. Joran does actually note what we have heard from the Trogs, blaming the dwarves for the destruction of their homes. He does wonder if they're too dense to see that it was obviously caused by the earthquake that also damaged the dwarven camps, but that he also cannot blame the trogs for wanting to protect their home. That is quite interesting. Clearly, Joran still does not think much or anything of the Trogs and dismisses them almost entirely, but does respect their fighting to protect their home and community. I think we're seeing that as a strong theme with the dwarves so far. Captain Irontock tells us while they absolutely appreciate our help in the valley, we need to get up to Anvilar up the hillways. They put all of the civilians on lockdown there following the earthquake and trog attack. And his wife Jonah likely needs an able-bodied assistant like us. Again, with the themes of community first, do your part for the good of the community.

[00:14:16]We tell Joran we'll head up there, and we make sure to take a peek around as we do so. Anvilmar is indeed a very well- fortified dwarven hold here in the valley. Outside we can see a surprisingly large graveyard. It is odd in my mind to see dwarves burying their dead outside in dirt, but we do see a marker for the Church of the Holy Light here. So, I wonder if that human religion has changed any practices around death. The entrance to Envilar is easily defensible, deeply set into the valley face here with potentially numerous vault style doors to block it off in any direct attack. The actual architecture of the entrance is a rather notable Titanic pillar setup holding up a gabled roof and pediment. I wonder if there's any significance there. H.

[00:15:06]Heading inside Anvilmar, we can see that the large primary chamber is centered around an immense hearth that seemingly doubles as a forge. It looks like there are a lot of communal areas for eating, sitting, working, you name it. At least in an emergency like this, the dwarves have no problems chilling together.

[00:15:25]Supplies are stockpiled in literally every corner. A good portion of them are actually weapons, especially rifles and ammunition. Oh, and explosives. So many explosives. Hey, look. This brazier is surrounded by rifle, ammunition, and explosives. That's fun. Oh, hey, and the beer. Around that central hearth, we can find a Jonah Irontock corraling civilians and issuing orders. So far, this absolutely reflects a culture that values community, defense, and coming together in an emergency. Exactly what we would expect from Fantasy Dwarves.

[00:16:02]Hilariously, one of the civilians mentions that they think it's getting awfully crowded in here and they don't like confined spaces. Boy, do I have bad news for you. Another mentions that Irontock, presumably Jonah, is not letting anyone out until the Trogs die down, almost treating the Trogs as a natural disaster in the same way as the earthquake. As we speak with Jonah, she initially brushes us off as she is too busy. It's not until we mention that her husband Joran sent us that she will take any notice and she immediately assigns us to a task. We need to go get more beer. Got to keep up that morale or get into a death spiral and get boat murdered. On the surface level, it's a really good dwarf joke. Get the beer.

[00:16:45]But on a deeper level, it is a communal resource that everyone shares together.

[00:16:50]a great way to keep up morale in a tense situation and keep those worries down as you follow these old deep traditions. It sounds like they stash their backup supplies outside of Anvilar. You know, I bet these weren't the backup supplies. I bet those are somebody's private stash they hid outside the main chamber for personal use. Excitingly, we're approached by Grundle Harkin, who asks us if we're into archaeology. Hey, no, I've been passing interest or something.

[00:17:20]No biggie. Apparently, all the shaking from the earthquake knocked loose some old artifacts from the soil, especially around the southern wall of the valley.

[00:17:28]Grundle here wants us to go a scoopin to see what we can find. Now, of course, I can speak about this with some authority. This setup is somewhat realistic. Seismic events, really, any land movement often can reveal material from older stratographic layers, that is deeper layers of Earth. Sometimes it can even reveal entire sites. However, when this happens, those artifacts tend to lose almost all provenience. The data related to where a thingy was found, what it was found next to, how deep it was that tells you how old it was, etc. that are essential for dating, identifying, and drawing conclusions from material remains. Once the Earth has so dramatically shifted things, it is very hard to piece this all back together. Thus, whatever we find may be interesting, but is unlikely to be analytically useful. It is a big part of why Pompei is so fascinating, but also why artifacts removed to a museum with none of this data are not quite entirely useless, but close to it. This also plays into the cultural themes around that fascination with their own history and past that has been set up for the dwarves. Brundle here is our first look at that fascination, almost more of a need to understand their own material culture, their own origins. Now, before we head out from Anvil, let's poke around just a little bit more. We don't see any obvious doors to the rest of the settlement, but I assume it has homes and tunnels throughout this mountain, especially with the isolated towers we have seen and Joran mentioning bringing everyone here into Anvil proper for safety. Assumably, they have their own spaces outside of this structure itself.

[00:19:11]In the back of the hearth chamber, we can find a smaller chamber that looks like it served as a little tavern kitchen area under normal circumstances.

[00:19:19]Now, it serves as extra explosive storage and a great place to keep the wounded. Obviously, I am just a teensy bit concerned by the sheer weight of explosives in this building, especially with all the firearms, bombs, candles, torches, brazers, and is one good oopsie away from redecorating in theore colors.

[00:19:39]Back in the main room and upper level, this hearth doubling as an artisal forge and central point is obviously quite revealing. We have seen and met very few merchants. Almost all have been artisans selling their own produced goods, not traveling merchants buying and trading.

[00:19:57]This clearly pushes a culture that values the skill of the artisan and buying local. I suspect, and we'll keep an eye out for confirmation, that dwarves have an immense amount of local pride, and supporting your local means of production, your community, is a central part of that. As we head out from Anvilar, one of the only dwarves doing so, we begin looking for the emergency beer supplies. Luckily, one of the barrels isn't that far away, partially buried in the snow. I hope the alcohol content is especially high.

[00:20:29]Really get that freezing point down.

[00:20:31]Look, it's dwarven nail. It should be fine, probably. While poking around, we also keep an eye out for those revealed artifacts Grundle was on about. We do find a few of them scattered in the fresh snow. luckily not yet buried. The game describes them as being remnants of a previous generation of dwarves. Well, we have all the beer and as many artifacts as we could dig out of the frost. Reporting back to Grundle, he is thrilled by our find, but shares very little with us. We do get from him that one of these must be at least 200 years old, so that is something. He eventually gets back to us with another task to go and look for Trog artifacts in the wreckage of their village to the southwest. that suffered damage in the earthquake. He surmises that just as the dwarven artifacts were dredged up by the earthquake, trog artifacts over there in their territory should have been as well. He suspects most of them would have been picked up by Trog scavengers.

[00:21:28]And he wants us to go quote get them back. My guy, those are Trogs in a Trog village recovering Trog artifacts. We can't go get them back from the Trogs who they belong to, but we can go forcefully loot things from them. He caps off his statement that believe it or not, knowledge about Trogs may eventually lead to further knowledge about the mighty dwarves. All righty then. Reporting into Jonah, she thanks us for collecting the stashed beer.

[00:21:57]However, now we need to make sure we have enough food supplies and blankets to keep everyone going in here. the boores and wolves in the valley can provide and we are able and willing to get out there. We take a moment to talk to a few more of the civilians here to get a sense of how they're doing as well. One mentions that following an earthquake of such magnitude, the last place they would want to be is indoors underground. Yeah, no kidding. As we head out into the field to get that barmy and those wolf pelts, let's reflect a little bit. Jonah here is acting as a bit of an anchor in Anvilar, keeping people safe, sane, and together.

[00:22:33]It sounds like while a busy job, the dwarves have an innate drive towards sticking together. Though a number of the civilians in Anvil have serious reservations about the lockdown, being indoors following a major earthquake or their supply situation, they are all quite handily sticking together. Nobody has broken down and started carving murderous elephants on every available surface yet. At the very least, this is an additional piece to our community focus hypothesis. Dwarves are very tied to their local community. Automatically standing up for each other and working together. To not do so, to not do your part seems like an extreme faux paw, a deep mistake. It is still early yet, but I would hypothesize this focus has layers. Like onions have layers. The core, the strongest focus is your family, then your community. Of course, this makes sense. We all do this.

[00:23:28]However, for the dwarves, it is far more important. I get the sense in this society, you don't say, "Hey, that person's doing a good thing by helping their neighbor." Instead, it is, "Hey, that person is doing a really bad thing and has failed by not helping their neighbor." It's not a social good to work with your community to help each other out. It is the expectation and requirement. As we get near the damaged Trog settlement, we can see some of them picking through the remains. These Trogs won't just hand over their belongings to us, weirdly. Instead, we do the next best thing. We pry the stuff from their cold, dead hands. Archaeology. The camp here is pretty damaged, and the tents look to be collapsed. I assume this is the damaged dwarven camp mentioned by Joran Irontock. And presumably the broken Trog village lies underground here. The priceless Trog artifacts we recover are described by the game as being rocks. Fascinating. We also have the boar hunches and wolf pelts all collected up by now. The boar meat seems quite good, but the wolf pelts are a bit questionable. They're described as being a bit mangy, but softer than borehide. I mean, yeah, technically needs must, I guess. Returning back to Grundle, he identifies what we brought back as an ax blade, several arrow heads, and a spoon.

[00:24:50]He thanks us for bringing these back to him so he has something to do during lockdown. Relatable. I too stole things from my neighbors to overanalyze while working from home during lockdown, crouched over their garbage like Gollum, holding up a plastic bottle ring, going on and on about my precious. It was a hard time for archaeologists. Um, for some better archaeological analysis, I'm not sure how much Grundle is going to get from lithic tools without that provenience. You can tell a fair amount about napping techniques, use and wear patterns, and sometimes the source if it is the right kind of stone. Pretty useful stuff all things considered. I wonder how much he knows about a Chulian handaxes. Maybe we should hang out sometime. Back over to Jonah for the whole keeping people alive thing. She thanks us for the supplies. However, these aren't going to last forever. She hopes that King Bronzebeard and Iron Forge will send some help shortly. Ah, awkward as that discussion is, it is also revealing this isolated valley and its community aren't super tied in to any news from other dwarven holds. They can rely upon help from them, but seem to otherwise keep to themselves trying to solve their own problems. This is a really interesting wrinkle in our community hypothesis, refining it a little bit further. If we keep seeing this theme of strong local communities, but more limited, specialized ties to other communities, it tells us that the dwarfs have a very nodal society. Each node or p in this case focuses on its own problems. It's only when they have well and truly exhausted all other plans and are literally wholly locked down and running out of supplies that they will ask for help. However, it seems like the expectation absolutely is that the help will come. They aren't begging for aid from a distant unknown city and king that doesn't care about them. They're asking for aid from their central city and biggest community. And the expectation is that they will certainly get that help so long as Iron Forge can afford to send it. These holds might be isolated, but they stand together. For now, Jonah wants us to find the camp of an old friend, Kellen Whitebeard, out in the valley. He put in a request for some reinforcements near the troll camps in the southwest. She warns us that while trogs are a pain, trolls are a whole other type of trouble. But we head out into the field to check in with this ghrelin. We find his camp out past the trogs. It looks like his camp made it through the earthquake relatively unscathed and has not been assaulted by the former at all. We check in with the titular Grelin and he gets straight to it. The trolls are acting up more than usual. What matters most is the protection of Anvilar and he has no intention of letting the trolls flank them while the trogs are knocking. His plan is for us to go kill 10 troll welps as a warning. Let the trolls know not to mess with Anvilar. Well, that certainly is cold. Assuming Welp is used in its traditional context and not just a gamification of the word, he is asking us to go kill a bunch of troll kids or teenagers as a warning to the rest not to mess with us. That tells us a lot about how the dwarves, or at least Grein, view the Frostmaid, just as a menace to be threatened off with extreme violence. That certainly speaks to a potential history of that same violence.

[00:28:18]It is particularly notable in contrast to the Trogs. There was even maybe some grudging, albeit dismissive, respect there from the dwarves, even while under active attack. We don't know much about the frost maiden themselves, and Grein doesn't give us much more context.

[00:28:35]Luckily, apprentice Saurin nearby at this little camp has some more for us.

[00:28:40]He tells us he is notoriously bad at reading troll expressions, but he doesn't think the Frostmaid look angry.

[00:28:47]He thinks they look confused, even a little scared. Given a potentially massive earthquake just hit the region, that seems reasonable. Further, he suspects something more has happened here than we are seeing. And he wants us to do some reconnaissance before we just kill every troll in sight. We should go listen in on the soothsayers in the frost main encampments to see what they're saying. That is a shockingly reasonable request, specifically following Grein's request here, but the task from him is still outstanding. We can ponder that while speaking with the gnome Felix Windlebolt here. He asks us for some help, stating he was on his way to join his fellow gnomes at Nomeon, but everything has gone wrong. The earth started quaking, the snow started shaking, and he lost all of his stuff in the process. Felix thinks the frost mane probably took all of his things, and he wants us to go recover them from the trolls. I guess we'll see if we find any out and about. As we head over to the Frostmaid territories, we can indeed note that the welps wandering around are smaller, only about as tall as we are.

[00:29:50]They are indeed younger trolls and not outright hostile to us. Oh boy, here we go killing again. We make sure to listen in on the susayers speaking common for some reason while we make our grizzly warning. The first states that the spirits be angry with us. I don't know why they reject us so. But don't worry, child. Brick is going to help us get through this. The second states, our land be a land of ice and snow. But beneath the earth child, there always be fire. The spirit come from the deep down to talk with Grier. The third states, what we going to do now, you ask? We wait. Grier says he's going to talk to the elemental. Get it to fight on our side. Soon enough, we take over this valley. Soon enough, we can also find all of Felix's belongings strewn about the troll encampments. Discussing those soothsayers a bit, it sounds like they either contacted or were contacted by a fire elemental following the cataclysm and the earthquake. The frostmaid villages themselves are loosely scattered along the southern reaches of the valley with one reaching back into a cave system. The trolls themselves appear quite a nerd to the cold temperatures, much like we are. We return back to the camp with the information for Apprentice Saurin, having also recovered Felix's stuff and delivered Grein's grizzly warning. Felix is thankful for our help, and he can continue on his merry way to Nomegon and all of its beautiful women. As he says, I'm not really sure how he ended up all the way down here in Coldridge on his way to Nomegon. Saurin is concerned by what we overheard. He suspects that the fire elemental either snuck in from the searing gorge or was able to hop through a breach to the elemental plane during the earthquake. Either way, we need to inform Grein. I'm sure I can tell what his plan will be. Indeed, for his part, he hopes that killing a bunch of the frostmaid welps did the trick to keep an omar safe. With the information from Saurin, though, we now know what has gotten them all riled up. He further comments that while confused right now, the trolls would still like to kick the dwarves out of this valley and he's not allowed to let some quote fiery demon turn our snowy valley into a mountain lake. He wants us to wipe out the frost mane in that cave where the elemental is, kill Bricker and defeat the fire elemental. It certainly sounds like there is that hinted at history of violence with the frost mane. And as expected, we get to fight into the cave, killing every troll we come across.

[00:32:23]These trolls back here are much taller than us, cementing that the ones outside, the welps, were younger. Many of these older, more experienced frostmaid utilize a weapon poison.

[00:32:33]Though it cannot breach our sturdy dwarven constitution, and we can pop stone form at any time to cleanse it.

[00:32:40]These icy caves seem less like a settlement and more like a hideaway. In the most frigid depths, we can find Grier stands up for combat before the elemental with several dead scorched trolls in the pit. It's unclear who these are, if they were dissident thrown to the elemental or if their relationship with the fiery being is itself more contentious. Whatever the case, we charge in and attack both Brrignier and the elemental. Rather interestingly, Grier yells at us in comment, "First the fire and now the dwarf. you going to die, which is difficult to interpret in context, but does not necessarily sound like they're fast friends with the elemental. We make our way back out of the bloody ice cave and return to Grein. He tells us that while it may not look like it now, we've proven a tremendous asset in the protection of Anvilar, and he provides us more equipment as a sign of gratitude. Further, the elemental, which he suspects broke through from the plane of fire, is deeply concerning. We need to report this to Iron Forge and we should check in with Hans Spring Sprocket by the tunnel out of the valley. As we approach and speak with the gnome named Hans, the tunnel itself actually collapses the theoretically.

[00:33:58]We'll take his word for it. Luckily, we didn't step in there a minute earlier.

[00:34:02]Hans luckily has a flare to signal the Nomegon airmen and one of them lands back down by Anvilar. We scuttle down to speak with Milo Gear Twitch, who has already checked in with Jonah Irontock.

[00:34:14]He tells us we should grab our supplies from Anvil. So, we head inside to speak with Jonah and grab a bit of those extra supplies before we take our flight on out of here. Jonah herself asks that we check in with the Blackstone once we land in Corinos and Vomar could use the assistance of another hold. We promise her we will before heading back out to catch our flight. Milo seats us on the gyroopter and speaks to us via radio after takeoff. Luckily, this thing appears to be either pre-programmed or remotely controlled. If I was flying this, we would definitely have created a fun new dig site on the valley wall.

[00:34:50]Milo fills us in on what has been happening in the wider Dun Maro outside of our isolated valley. Carinos has evidently been squaring off with the local Frost Main village as well. But for some good news, it seems that the gnomes have retaken Nomeon. I'm sure that story beat will be resolved very soon. In the east, there's rumors of Dark Iron acting up and also strange rumors out of Iron Forge regarding the dwarven king Magny Bronzebeard and some new statuary. We might want to check that out. It might be a long-term relevant plot moment. As we land in Keranos, glad to have our two feet on the ground, we make sure to check in with the Blackstone. He initially tells us that they have enough problems here in Karanos and don't have much to spare for Coldridge. But as we explained the trogs, the trolls, and the elemental incursions, he acknowledges they definitely do need to send some help that way. Now that we've reached Keranos, our next stop, let's reflect on Coldridge Valley and our initial thoughts on the dwarves. We saw an isolated dwarven settlement on the far fringes of Gun Maro here. The protection of that community was and remains paramount. Every individual is expected to do their part. In fact, our early hypothesis here puts community as the central piece of dwarven society.

[00:36:09]Everything revolves around it. Defense of that home also seems to be a core part of dwarven society, as is standing with your fellow members. It is not a society where helping your neighbors is a good. It is one where that is expected and necessary. To not do so is contrary to their core beliefs. Each dwarfven settlement, hold, citadel, fortress, whatever you want to call it, is a community, and they take care of their own first. Each one is expected to be able to handle themselves rather self-sufficiently. However, there is also a strong understanding of the scale of threats and aid from other settlements or from Iron Forge can easily be called in with strong expectation of support. We get the sense from this early evolving hypothesis that dwarven territory is a web of such settlements, each acting mostly on their own, but with these strong enduring ties to their peers. Again, the holds might be isolated, but they all stand together. We see early hints at a history of conflict with both the Trogs and with the trolls. The Trogs are seen as an annoying nuisance, almost a natural threat, it seems, while there instead seems to be a deep hatred and antipathy and hostility towards the Frostmaid trolls. We have not yet learned about the roots of this hostility, but we may get more information about it soon if that other larger village is anything to go by. And last, but certainly not least, we saw an enduring deep fascination with their people's origins and roots. Archaeology, such as it is for the dwarves, is a wellrespected institution, one seemingly with a strong cultural draw and significant efforts and funding put towards it. It must be nice. But that is all for today folks. We will be back here soon to continue our exploration of Dun Maro with Karanos. If you have indeed enjoyed this anthropological exploration and would like to see more, please like, subscribe, hit the bell, do the thing. You know the drill. I have been your host Mal and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day today. Do no harm and do some good.