One of the ancient chambers of Khazikal.
"Durin's Beard! I've never seen anything like it!"
- Bolin after seeing Khazikal for the first time.
Khazikal was an ancient Dwarf kingdom located in the Orocarni (Red Mountains) far to the East of the Sea of Rhun. The kingdom was founded after three of the four Dwarf clans in the Orocarni merged their kingdoms together. When the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando founded the Alliance , Khazikal was made into the base of the Alliance, becoming an economic center of the region and making it the largest Dwarf kingdom that there ever was.
Background[]
When the 7 Dwarf Fathers first awoke, four of them were located in the Orocarni. The four fathers went on to form four different clans: the Ironfists, the Stiffbeards, the Stonefoots and the Blacklocks. The first three got on very well, trading with each other constantly and helping each other with bandits and enemy armies. The Blacklocks, however, were a stubborn folk, hating even their own kindred and barely leaving their halls.
Eventually, the Three allied clans united into one, forming the kingdom of Khazikal. After years of expansion and growth in population, Khazikal ended up becoming three times the size of Khazad-dum. Meanwhile, the sorceress Kashaka had hypnotized the Blacklocks, and soon Khazikal went to war against the enslaved clan. Due to this, the military of Khazikal grew enormously, making the Dwarves there a lethal fighting force.
Formation of the Alliance[]
When the Istari arrived in Middle-earth, the two Blue Wizards went eastward, as their job was to eliminate the threat of Kashaka from Middle-earth. The Wizards quickly befriended the Dwarves of Khazikal, telling them that it was not through the Blacklock's doing that they were at war. The Wizards then allied themselves with the nearby Avari settlements and the Easterlings north of the Sea of Rhun, forming the Alliance. Knowing it's near impenetrability and how large it was, the Alliance decided that Khazikal would work well as a capital.
For hundreds of years after, the Alliance fought with Kashaka and her forces, both sides coming close to annihilation numerous times. Despite this, Khazikal was never taken by Kashaka, simply due to it's immense size and how well positioned it was to defend from a siege. The Alliance carried on fighting Kashaka well into the final years of the Third Age, but when the Fourth Age started, Kashaka suddenly vanished. At first, the Alliance assumed that she had given up, but Pallando realized that even enemies that surrender still make themselves visible to their foes.
In truth, Kashaka had travelled west to enthrall the lands of Eriador, Rhovanion, Rohan and Gondor in the hopes of creating an army of obedient slaves who could defeat the Alliance, all while turning her into the most powerful Dark Lord who ever lived. However, there was one person who stood in her way: Mageth Vorncollo . Alatar and Pallando brought Mageth and his allies to Khazikal, where they armed themselves before heading off to war against Kashaka, who had enslaved half of Middle-earth.
Inside Khazikal[]
Khazikal itself was enormous, with the many halls and chambers stretching vertically through the mountains. By the time the Fourth Age had started, the halls of Khazikal covered an area equivalent to Mirkwood. There were three main areas of the kingdom: the crafting halls and armouries, the marketplace and the mines. The crafting halls linked to the armouries and were located in the southern most part of Khazikal. The marketplace stretched across multiple halls and lay in the center. The mines were rich with mithril, gold, silver, iron and bronze, along with thousands of gems. The mines lay in the north sector of Khazikal, and were also the biggest area.