Orzammar

== History ==
{{Blockquote|It is an awe–inspiring sight, a great city of stone standing within a vast cavern, poised over a sea of molten lava. There the forges ring loudest, and the finest smiths create works that are the envy of all races. Countless thaigs were lost in the [[First Blight]], when the [[darkspawn]] poured out of the [[Deep Roads]] like smoke. With each generation, more of the Deep Roads had to be sealed, more thaigs lost forever. Now only Orzammar stands—the last bastion of the dwarven race and its finest creation.<ref>[http://dragonage.bioware.com/dao/world/orzammar Orzammar]. BioWare wiki.</ref>}}

According to the dwarven history, the dwarven empire once spread across all of Thedas, and that the [[Thedas#Underground|underground]] city-fortresses called thaigs were almost beyond counting. [[Kal-Sharok]] was the capital then, home to all the [[Noble caste|noble]] [[house]]s, and Orzammar was simply the home of the mining and [[Smith caste|smith]] [[caste]]s.

Orzammar, Kal-Sharok, [[Kal'Hirol]], and nine other thaigs, are considered "great thaigs", as opposed to the numerous other thaigs as they were once the main centers of the dwarven empire.

At -1170 [[Ancient Age|Ancient]] (25 TE) [[Dwarven royalty|King]] [[Endrin Stonehammer]] moved the capital of the dwarven empire to Orzammar<ref name="wot19">{{Cite wot|19-20}}</ref> to preside more directly over the commercial aspects of dwarven life, mining and crafting, as Orzammar was the ancestral seat of the Mining and [[Smith caste|Smith]] [[caste]]s<ref>[[Codex entry: Orzammar History: Chapter One]]</ref> and because of the turmoil in the [[Tevinter Imperium]] following the death of the [[Archon]] [[Darinius]].<ref name="wot37"/> This sparked the development of several construction projects in the city. The most famous of which is the Stonehammer Hall and the expansion of the [[Orzammar Proving|Proving Grounds]]. However some years later, the taxes drained by Orzammar from Kal-Sharok's trade profits began to grow burdensome.<ref name="wot19"/>

Following the outbreak of the First Blight, the dwarven empire was crumbling. [[Paragon]] [[House Aeducan|Aeducan]] assumed the leadership of Orzammar and managed to push back the darkspawn. Despite his victory, it was not enough and after the end of the First Blight the darkspawn kept pushing; by -15 [[Ancient Age|Ancient]] (1180 TE), the kingdom of Orzammar was assumed to be the last one still standing.<ref>{{Cite wot|52}}</ref> Since then, the kingdom was in a steady decline by losing most of its outlying thaigs.

In the [[Towers Age]] the [[Chasind Wilder]]s along with other "terrible things" were led by [[Flemeth]]'s daughters, the [[Witch of the Wild|Witches of the Wild]]. This force invaded the region of what would be [[Ferelden]] and were all but unopposed until the hero Cormac led an army of [[Alamarri]] fighters and Orzammar dwarves. After a long series of dreadful battles, the Chasind were all but destroyed, and the witches burned.<ref>''[[Dragon Age (tabletop RPG)]]'', Player's Guide, set 1, p. 9</ref>