Amber Ideas

Traditions
+50% Prestige from Land battles
-20% Unjustified Demands

Mastery of Sulphur and LeadIt is said that the first cannon to be forged originated as an experiment by the Amber Dwarves, where they used the vast deposits of sulphur and lead in the Tree of Stone to create a devastating weapon. While powerful, the first cannons were expensive to produce and hard to transport, so the majority were used as emplacements in walls and outposts in the Tree of Stone to protect against invading goblins. The Amber Dwarves shared their discoveries with all of Aul-Dwarov yet they kept the craft of making cannons a secret, constantly refining the designs and production methods, eventually producing mobile cannons used to besiege the hobgoblin-occupied hold of Grônstunad in 2394 BA.
+10% Land Fire Damage

The Final Hold of the EastWhile the West Dwarovar fell to the hordes of orcs and the East to the hobgoblin and goblin menace, Ovdal Kanzad still stands resolute. While the remnants of Aul-Dwarov scrambled to retain their holdings or reclaim the empire, the Amber Dwarves successfully maintained a strong frontier on the Copper Road and kept the goblins of the Tree of Stone at bay. The Jade Empire which replaced the fallen leadership of Aul-Dwarov proved incompetent, their loss of control of their surroundings bringing peril to themselves and those loyal to them and proving that independence would be the only future for us, for we are the last to survive in the east - not from the protection of others, but from our own strength.
-1% Prestige Decay

Secrets in AmberIn much of the amber found in the Tree of Stone, there lie many different insects, arachnids and plants preserved inside. With every piece of amber being so individually unique, collectors, scientists and jewellers desperately made their way to Ovdal Kanzad to find the rarest species. While the sales propped up much of the local economy of the hold, by the time of the fall of Amldihr, the luxury of buying such amber was deemed much less important. The nobility of Ovdal Kanzad would repurpose these fine pieces of amber, embedding it in weapons, armour and even cannons, turning each into a unique piece of art. Some rumours even say that each species within the amber would imbue the items with unique qualities and give luck to our aim…
+10% Production Efficiency

Honour our Topaz KinDespite our previous loyalty to the Jade Empire, we never abandoned our close ties with the Topaz Dwarves of Gor Ozumbrog. They were our only kin to never hesitate in aiding our hold against any threat, even with the highest of stakes at risk. After our independence from the Jade Empire, we signed the Copper Road Pact with Gor Ozumbrog, where we swore to jointly defend the road between us against the tides of goblins spilling from the Tree of Stone. When Gor Ozumbrog fell in 1154, many refugees came seeking a new home in our hold, and we accepted our displaced friends with eagerness, swearing revenge against those who betrayed them and an oath to reclaim their lost home.
+20% Improve Relations

Experimental AmmunitionAs our knowledge of cannons progressed, the idea of using different ammunition for different encounters sparked the imagination of the Amber Dwarf engineers. While solid lead balls were effective in most cases, they were resource intensive to produce, and the fear of exhausting our lead deposits was always close to becoming a reality, leading to many different experiments across the years. Hollow-shelled cannonballs were developed and modified to unique situations - explosive cannonballs could target attacking siege engines while incendiary shot could close off perimeters on battlefields. The meagre attempts of our foes to combat our cannons would fail continuously as we constantly adapted techniques to dispatch any enemy creatively and efficiently.
+10% Artillery Combat Ability

Shattering SalvosAfter the fall of the Jade Empire and the orcish devastation in the Segbandal, both routes to our hold were completely blocked off by the swarms that moved all across the ruined empire. Since those days, countless goblin assaults have been repelled from the walls of Ovdal Kanzad, with the unending barrage of cannonballs annihilating and demoralising the invaders before they could even lay a finger on our gates. Pits and trenches litter the ruined rails, the relics of attempts at crossing the land before the hold's walls, and such devastated terrain serves as a warning that has resulted in ever fewer invasion attempts over the years. Our batteries eventually spread so much fear in the Tree of Stone that even as the orcs journeyed from the Middle Dwarovar towards us, the debris, littered corpses and the sounds of cannonfire made them wary of attacking us.
+1 Attrition for Enemies

Cannon-GeneralsThe Kanzadi barrage of bullets and cannonfire was something to be reckoned with, but a cannon is nothing without its commander.\n\nThe Amber Dwarf Cannon-Generals were famous across the Dwarovar, sitting atop their great cannons and bellowing orders for when to fire and reload to their artillery companies. Their cannons proved to be invaluable in revolutionising combat against the hordes of monsters that beset them, collapsing ceilings onto their enemies and breaking any defences they would dare to set up. It is said that their roar can be heard above the sound of cannonfire itself!
+1 Land Leader Fire

Ambition
+0.5 Artillery Fire