The Balladine was a yearly celebration of trade held on the summer solstice by the Calnar Dwarves of Thorin.
The Calnar's hidden purpose for Balladine was so that they could stoke the fires of the magma pit at the heart of their city by focusing the sun's rays into the pit.
Each Balladine was accompanied with the Call to Baladine, a long intermingling cadence of drum beats, which would be a made by drummers atop sentinels in the mountains that would summon for trade the human tribes of Golash and Chandera.
The last Balladine was used by the mage Grayfen Ember-eye to rally an army of raiders to assault Thorin while the dwarven keep was open for trade. While the attack was eventually repulsed and the invaders destroyed, the cost of the assault was too great and the keep of Thorin were in ruins. The new leader, Tolon Farsight, decided to end the tradition Balladine and significantly close off the world of the Calnar to the outside world.
References[]
- The Covenant of the Forge, p. 11, 19, 77, 84