Cimloi Merk of the Granitehammer Clan

Year of the Majestic Mace and the Fall of the Dwarven Realm of Ironstar. The final remnants of the clan were slaughtered on the Stone Bridge. The few survivors fled south to join with the Fallen Kingdom, the Kingdom of Man.

The Ironstar Clan has been away for too long from their home. Some surviving members of the Ironstar Clan are converging upon the Silver Marches to find and retake their ancestral home somewhere in the north. They were driven from their homes over 1700 years ago by hordes of orcs and herded South across the Stone Bridge, a massive stone arch that spans the River Dessarin.

The Granitehammers, descendents of the Ironstars, are tired of living in the Sword Mountains and want their ancestral homes back; there will be blood and death for all who oppose them. The Ironstar name will ring once again in the homes of their ancestors and this time it is the orcs who will flee before dwarven might. The clan plans to rebuild their once burgeoning empire and begin mining and producing fine darksteel weapons once again. Darksteel is the pride of the clan and its secrets are closely guarded. The Ironstars are the finest and perhaps only masters in the art of manipulating the hard alloy.

The Granitehammers will only revert to their true clan name when they are once again amongst the stone halls of their forefathers. The Granitehammer clan symbol is a pair of crossed stone hammers.


Cimloi is the 3rd child of Kelger Merk and Cimlin Granitehammer. All of his 5 siblings have given to service of the Dwarven Community, as guards of wagon trains moving refugies, warriors fighting orcs, or as a smith making arms. Cimloi's oldest brother, Cimloin, left to join the Granitehammers in the Marches and was killed in the Battle of Deepward Keep from the invasions of Oubold and the Frost Giants.

Kelger considered is death a waste on a quest of folly. After his death, Kelger made her children vow not to take up arms for the Ironstars. Cimlin and Kelger argued constantly that the children could make their minds as they reached their forties. Cimloi's older sister, married to a smith, was busy starting a family and sharing the secrets of smithing Darksteel and Adamantine. She was easy to convince, as were the others. At only 23 years, Cimloi was not so easy, and was preparing to go to the Marches to join his cousins in the fight. But Cimloi never made the trip. After his 25th birthday celebration, a host of dwarves dressed in robes came and took Cimloi away; he was seen twice in the next 48 years, at the funerals of his parents. He said nothing to his family, showing only for the public service and leaving again.

Cimloi spent the next 48 years learning, not what it meant to be a Granitehammer or Ironstar, but what it meant to be a dwarf. Dwarves are a magnificent race, but because they like the earth, mining, digging, they are often the first to meet the Underdark and whatever it may bring up. Dwarves are not the pathetic warriors humans seem to think, but the force that slows the enemy so the humans can beat it back. Dwarves are to be respected and cherished.

Cimloi studied the teaching of Gorm Gulthyn, the Guardian of Dwarves. He learned a fight with spirit and mind is as strong as any fight with a weapon. While he no longer pursues the dreams of the Granitehammers, he will take his place along side them when they are successful; he will defend their homes; he will defend their keeps; he will defend them from invaders; he will defend them from themselves. The Dwarven Kind is sacred to Cimloi, and he will defend them until he dies.

Cimloi now spends his time preparing for the day when he will guard the Dwarven Keeps. He is learning about the beasts of the world, fighting, and magic. A lifetime of study has not prepared him for his chosen task, so now, with the teachings behind him, he prepares himself.

Kelger may have changed his direction, but she has not changed his desire...

Cimloi has made slow work of his time, but, being in his mid-seventies, he is fine with that. He has been to the Dell and found he is drawn to the library there, even though the Chauntean Priests look upon him as a strange dwarf. Almost 50 years of study cannot be dragged out of the man in but a year.

As he studied, Cimloi began to read of the arts of asynchronous warfare. When a weaker force is pitted against a far superior force, how can the weaker force prevail? Those farmers don't have much in their library on the subject, but they gave Cimloi some ideas, and he's begun testing those against the various villainous creatures about Dagger Falls.

There was a "collection" of dwarves in the Falls the other day, and Cimloi was quite surprised. Having gone months without seeing but himself and Murkur, it was good to keep company with Pearl, Boulder, Thorgim and the rest. Seems they almost have a Clan of Wanderers...