Zharr Naggrund (WAR Lore)
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The Tower of Zharr Naggrund ("Desolation of fire" in the Dwarf language Khazalid) is at the centre of the Chaos Dwarf Empire in the northern Dark Lands, and it is the object of their labours and enterprise. Even though there are many mines, foundries, workshops and fortresses throughout the Plain of Zharrduk and beyond, there is only one city in the whole of the empire.
Overview
The Tower of is constructed from black obsidian, which reflects the light created from the flames of the many furnaces that constantly burn through day and night. The entire city is built in a series of tall steps, similar to a ziggurat, and each of these steps is many hundreds of feet high surrounded by great battlements that jut upwards into the sky. At the bottom of the monstrous ziggurat, the lowest step is pierced by four enormous stone gateways, bound in iron. These gates are almost as high as the walls themselves. From the east and west gates roads made of slabs of gold and brass lead away into the Mountains of Mourn in the east and the Dark Lands in the west. The north and south gates are river sluices from which the River Ruin flows through, on its journey south where it eventually empties into the Sea of Dread. The river is used to cool the huge furnaces and forges of the city, and the steam created is put to work, powering the engines and flushing out the waste created from the industry. When the river leaves the city, is full of pollutants and thick with poisonous sediments.
There are a thousand huge furnaces in Zharr-Naggrund, smelting the metals which provide the lifeblood of the city. It is a living workshop surrounded by noise and smoke, lit up by the raging fires themselves and powered by machines and engines of enormous size and power. Both the noise of the many forges and the work of the Chaos Dwarves' slaves never cease. The smoke and dust created by the great city chokes the sky and casts the tower in an eternal twilight, illuminated only by its own forges.
The Temple of Hashut
At the top of Zharr-Naggrund lies the Temple of Hashut]] the bull-shaped god of the Chaos Dwarfs. His temple is guarded by the strange Bull Centaurs - creatures mutated by Chaos Dwarfs long ago. Inside the temple, the guardians perform bloodthirsty rites as captives are thrown into cauldrons of molten metal, urged on by all who watch. At the top of the temple stands the iron great statue of Hashut and inside its hollow iron stomach is a furnace which gives the statue an eerie red glow. The god is the embodiment of the city, its master and deity, and whose power runs through the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers who order thousands of slaves to be sacrificed by fire and furnace to appease him.