Harv Doruhl (pronounced HARV door-UHL) is a small nation in the Wounds inhabited by both dwarves from Harv Taruhm and Fanakaran tribes. The exile-queen Ramn has ruled this remote island since being deposed as ruler of Harv Taruhm in the middle of the last century. Though she has tried since to gather enough allies to retake the throne, few trust her newly softened stance towards non-dwarves, least of all the Fanakara with whom she shares the island.
Geography
See also: Varameno
The now-dormant mountain peak of Varameno rises high above the surrounding seas, sloping up to a water-filled caldera in the center. Though the landscape of the island is dominated by the mountain, significant parts along the coast, especially in the west and southeast, are much more flat. Tropical forests thrive in the rich, ashy soil of the island, which is covered in palm trees and other foliage, home to many wild animals that provide plentiful game to the inhabitants of the Varameno. That island's climate is warm to hot year-round, with variation throughout the wet and dry seasons.
Though none approach the size of Varameno, many small islets and uplifted reefs can be found surrounding the island as well. The waters off the southern and western coasts have a reputation as being difficult to traverse owing to the shallowness of the water relatively far out to sea and the many barely-submerged rocks that can easily damage or destroy the vessel of an unwary crew.
Varamenu is roughly 1900 miles north of the Chain, 2600 miles east of Ha-Rase-Metu, and 2000 miles southwest of Phersu.
History
Megalithic shrines, quite reminiscent of those constructed by the Basharma of Phersu, can be found near the caldera on Varameno - it is unknown if these were built by a now-vanished subgroup of the Basharma or by a related giant people. In either case, their creators last resided on Varameno millennia ago, long gone by the time the Fanakara, let along the dwarves, arrived on the island.
While the Fanakara have resided on Varameno for centuries - the island was once the easternmost territory of the Rasharekan Empire at its height - the dwarves are much more recent arrivals. When shield-queen Ramn was deposed by Ruvodk in Y9951* the exile-queen and her loyal family and courtiers fled north and east across the Na-Gaesa Ocean, where they settled on Varameno. There they established the caldera-side settlement of Aurrean and began to build a new fortress from which to rule until such time as they can press their claim on the Grievous Islands once more.
Demographics
The inhabitants of Varameno are largely human and half-elven Fanakara tribes - the dwarves number less than a thousand, even as they claim the entire island as territory of Harv Doruhl. The tribes of the Re-Hara account for most of the Fanakaran population, but they are joined by sevel subgroups of the Vara-Minu as well.
Culture
Religion
The dwarves of Harv Doruhl continue to worship their traditional Taruhmite pantheon of fearsome testing deities - even with their distance and political estrangement from Harv Taruhm, the exile-queen and her court still heed the warnings of Taruhmite oracles. Doruhlite emissaries sent to confer with the oracles are the sole dwarven inhabitants of Harv Doruhl permitted to peacefully return to, and leave, the Grievous Islands, for the religious leaders of Harv Taruhm know that any failure to supplicate the gods in Harv Daruhl will doubtless result in divine wrath meted out against them as well.
To the Fanakara on Varameno, meanwhile, the primary targets of veneration are their ancestors and the spirits that inhabit the megaliths erected on the island so long ago, which they go to great lengths to defend. Worship of the Beating Heart is not unknown on Harv Doruhl, yet it generally does not take a major role in the religious life on the island, in large part due to the lack of volcanic activity on Varameno and in the immediate surrounding seas.
Society
Languages
Sea-Speak, Taruhmite Dwarven, and multiple Fanakaran tongues are all spoken on Harv Doruhl. Compared to their kin on Harv Taruhm, dwarves living on Varameno are more likely to understand more than one language.