Zharr-Naggrund, formally the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund, and called Mingol Zharr-Naggrund ("Tower of Fire and Desolation") in the Chaos Dwarf dialect of Khazalid, is the capital city of the Chaos Dwarfs and lies in the heart of their empire, in the centre of the Plain of Zharrduk in the Dark Lands.[1a]
The Dawi-Zharr built the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund in the shape of a mountain, rising tier upon tier to its summit. At its top, they constructed a massive temple to their evil minor Chaos God Hashut, the Father of Darkness. It is from there that the ruling Conclave of Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophets administer their empire.[1a]
Geography[]
Zharr-Naggrund lies at the centre of the Chaos Dwarf empire and is the object of all their labours and enterprises. Though there are numerous mines, workshops, foundries and fortresses throughout the Plain of Zharrduk and beyond, there is just one mighty city in all the empire of the Dawi-Zharr. The Tower of Zharr-Naggrund is built of obsidian, black volcanic glass whose surface reflects the flames of the myriad furnaces that burn both day and night. The entire city is built on a series of tall steps, like a ziggurat, each step hundreds of feet high and surmounted by battlements that jut upwards like a row of ugly fangs.[1a]
Each step is square, and the bottom step is pierced by four huge stone gateways bound in iron. The gates are almost as high as the walls and massive beyond any obvious need.[1a]
From the east and west gateways roads paved with gold and brass lead to the Mountains of Mourn and the Dark Lands. The north and south gateways are the river sluices through which the waters of the River Ruin pour. This cold river enters the city from the north and is put to use cooling the huge forges of the Daemonsmiths, powering the steam-driven engines, and flushing the effluent of industry out to the south.[1a]
Where it leaves the city the river is stained red and yellow with filth, laden with noxious sediments and its steaming water is thick and poisonous. A foul yellow cloud hangs about the river and its banks are choked with drifts of spectacularly coloured pollutants.[1a]
A thousand massive furnaces burn within the vastness of Zharr-Naggrund, smelting the metals that are the lifeblood of the city. The city is a huge living workshop full of smoke and noise, illuminated by its inner fires and driven by machines of vast size and power. Gigantic steam-driven hammers stamp out sheets of iron and bronze with rythmic booms like the heartbeats of a cyclopean god. Massive cauldrons of bubbling metal pour out their molten contents into twisted moulds of intrincate construction. The roaring of furnaces, groaning of huge wheels and grinding of arcane machineries fills the oily air. The noise and the labours never cease.[1a]
The Dark Lands are shrouded in thick volcanic clouds and smoke from the workshops of the Plain of Zharrduk, so the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund exists in a timeless twilight, illuminated by the carmine fires of its own forges.[1a]
Notable Locations[]
Temple of Hashut[]
At the pinnacle of the great Chaos Dwarf city is the Temple of Hashut, the bull-shaped god of the Chaos Dwarfs, who they call the Father of Darkness. His temple is guarded by Bull Centaurs, creatures mutated from Chaos Dwarfs long ago. They have the body of a bull but the torso of a Chaos Dwarf, with long snaggly tusks and exotically curled beards.[1a]
Inside the temple its guardians perform bloodthirsty rites, throwing captives into cauldrons of molten metal to the echoing laughter of the assembled Daemonsmiths, who also serve as the ruling priesthood of Hashut. On top of the temple stands the iron statue of Hashut. Its hollow iron belly contains a furnace heated by coals so that the statue glows red hot and anyone who touches its surface suffers searing wounds.[1a]
The god is the embodiment of the city, its deity and its master, whose power flows through the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, and for whom thousands of slaves are sacrificed by fire and furnace.[1a]
Trivia[]
Zharr-Naggrund, as well as the Dark Lands, is inspired in part by the geography of Middle-earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. Zharr-Naggrund is likely influenced heavily by the descriptions of the Barad-dûr, the capital of the land of Mordor.