Overview:  Enclaves of Dwarves struggling to understand the ways of the surface world.

Narrative:  Among the Sons of Thurin, the word "hold" refers not only to the subterranean halls and fortresses that the Dwarves favor, it also refers to the group of Dwarves that dwell within it: the "Hold" is the basic unit of Dwarf society. Dwarves have no families, no lineages and pedigrees, and they find the dynastic politics of the other races bewildering and meaningless. Dwarf Holds are governed by Thanes, who are in turn advised by a council of the ablest and most skilled Dwarves in the Hold. Every Dwarf can state their opinion about issues or matters of policy, though the will of the Thane prevails. Though the great Councils of the Dwarves can become loud and unruly, true strife is almost unknown to them. In the years since the Turning many bands of Dwarves have been forced the abandon the shattered deeps and make new homes in the Roofless World. Though they may have lost the Holds they used to live in, the Holds these Dwarves belong to still endure.