Once a wealthy noble and prospector within the Dwarven capital of Belgrath, Lorgrim Thunderhelm was an avid adventurer in his youth, and travelled to many exotic and distant lands. However, an expedition to an isolated mountain range just south of The Spine's southern tip led to discovery of rich deposits of precious metals and gemstones during a prospecting survey.

Such wealth could provide a great boon to the Dwarven people, Lorgrim reasoned, and thus he returned to Belgrath, gathering a throng of warriors, craftsmen and colonists with which to build a new Dwarven hold.

Over the course of eighty years, this "Iron Hold" developed quickly, and has flourished due to the wealth offered by the mountain. The populace of the Hold has reached a stable populace of five thousand dwarves, a mixture of the original colonists, their descendants as well as dwarven migrants from other holds. There are also many more Human and Orcish colonists who also reside in a series of towns and villages in the shadow of the mountain, thriving under the Iron Hold's protection and sponsorship, the elderly yet no less formidable Lorgrim reigning as it's king.