The Great Stone of Meckelorn

The Great Stone is the most powerful life stone known to exist acting a metaphysical second sun that lets a huge number of fungi and magical plants grow underground for a wide radius allowing this underground area to sustain a much larger population than a subteranean realm realistic should. A lot of the food produced is brodesopp but fortunately for the discriminating palates, not all of it.

The Great Stone of Meckelorn is valuable for it's ability to augment food production alone, but it has greater cultural and spiritual signfinance   Most dwarves believe that the Great Stone marks the spot where the genesis dwarves first emerged, having been chiseled out of the Great Stone by the Nine, especially Hallisan who most dwarves view as their primary spiritual patron.   Centuries ago, Mordock the Destroyer led a coalition army of humans, orcs, giants, goblins, and others and conquered the dwarf homeland of Meckelorn among many other territories. It was a huge insult to dwarfkind when they were evicted from the Great Stone.   The Meckelorn in the Second Age fought a geurilla war for generations to try to reclaim the Great Stone and the rest of their homeland but they only succeeded when they were eventually joined by Stahlheimer dwarves. Both Dwarf Kingdom of Meckelorn and Dwarf Kingdom of Stahlheim claimed primary rights over the Great Stone and two nations might have gone to war had the priesthoods of both nations not intervened.   Even though Meckelorn reclaimed their homeland and control all the land surrounding the Great Stone, the Grand Temple of Meckelorn that was built around the Great Stone and everything within a mile radius is technically a soverign country run by the dwarf priests and priestesses of Order of the Stone. On paper at least, the Grand Temple is a separate nation. Thus, both the dwarf Kingdom of Meckelorn and the dwarf Kingdom of Stahlheim are allowed access to the Great Stone but do not have direct control over it, though Meckelorn benefits from the vast majority of the foodstuff bearing plants and fungi fed by the Great Stone.

Order of the Stone allows dwarf pilgrims from both Meckelorn and Stahlheim free access to the stone for healing and prayer. This is theoretically open to all dwarves and they occasionaly receive pilgrims from far off Mondert. It is rare for Mondarian dwarves to visit, but they are warmly welcomed when they make the long journey.