The Duchy of Nal Crioch (NAHL-cree-AHK) is a heavily mountainous region that takes up the eastern half of the Kingdom’s southern border with the Vauldan Empire and contains one of the headwaters of the Rothlin River. It has been fought over by powers of the Rothlin river-valley, the Amethran Plain, and the Tomarran Plateau for millennia. The Province is littered with battlefields, fortresses, and watch-towers, and despite the relative peace and prosperity of the last century or so the residents still don’t entirely trust that their neighbors to the south or east won’t take advantage and begin a new conflict.
Nal Crioch, along with the Vauldan Province of Hammerhall immediately to the south, was the primary destination of the First Dwarven Diaspora from the Tomarran Plateau. The Dwarven Clans of old settled into the mountains of the Spine and built a new home here, untainted by Helikhar’s touch. The mountains and hills of the Province are crisscrossed with ancient tunnels and Clanhalls dating back to the first Millennium, and old ruins are still being uncovered to this day — though any would-be seekers of ancient Dwarven treasures had best remember that the lands of Nal Crioch were war-torn even during those early years. Many of the traps and hazards that the Dwarves of old built are still in working order, despite the passage of millennia.
The Duchy is, like many other regions of the Spine, rich in mineral resources, particularly silver, gold, and Mithryl. The ancient Clanhalls and their linked surface-dwelling communities have also been developed into remarkably effective aether-conduits; these structures channel aether up from the bowels of the earth and into special caverns or out onto the surface, where it crystalizes into Aether Crystals or is absorbed by the many herb gardens that are carefully cultivated in terraces upon the mountain-sides. Though Nal Crioch’s history is primarily one of warfare and struggle against invasion, it has also been a center of innovation and industry in the areas of rituals and alchemy, putting its magical resources to good use in the defense and prosperity of the Kingdom.