Brief Abstract: Last Days of Dunwarren Being a brief abstract of the larger work by Mandarin Dreagle
Originally, Dunwarren was a thriving metropolis of svirneblin miners. This was before their scholars discovered a currently unknown secret of societally breaking power. In the assumption that society only functions because it is held together by divine law, posited originally by Bernarius Crumb, it is clear that this secret still lost to age was enough to undermine the major social mores and glue of Dunwarren resulting in a perplexing and rapid collapse.
The collapse was precipitated by two major factions that incited a civil war in Dunwarren. Currently, the factions are refered to as the Moles and the Machinists. Each apparently formed as a response to the societal fragmentation engendered by earlier discoveries. Each response is typical I feel of any society that is seeing a social collapse--embrace or rejection. Feeling this collapse was inevitable, the Moles turned to a dark cult like religion that ultimately sponsored murder, rape, and mass suicides. Even worse was the supernatural effect on the cultists themselves. Today, the squatters of Dunwarren can find the "rat-kings" strewn at cultic sites. Believed to have little power, the full story of these "rats" is rarely linked to the actual "moles" that they represent.
The machinists took the second route, rejection. In an effort to resist or fight against whatever this dark secret was--they turned to the creation of animatrons. This led to a conflict with local druids that further weakened the crumbling city. Civil war with the cultists weakened the machinist factions even further.
Ultimately, Dunwarren collapsed in on itself. It is only recent research through interviews with some few survivors that the truth has been learned. The great secret of Dunwarren still haunts Sanctuary today, and still threatens the same response should it be released into common knowledge.