The Covenant of the Forge

The Covenant of the Forge opens the Dwarven Nations trilogy generations before the War of the Lance, when Krynn's scattered dwarven clans strike a fragile bargain to carve a single great mountain kingdom, Thorbardin, out of the earth together. The unity that founds Thorbardin is hard-won and harder to keep, and the compromises struck here are the ones that later crack the kingdom apart.