The Great Hall of Durin

The Great Hall of Durin
Region:	Moria
Area:	Zelem-melek
Location:	[7.6S, 105.2W]

Location

The Great Hall of Durin is found within Zelem-Melek ^{[7.6S, 105.2W]}

Lore

Within this grand hall stood the throne of Durin the Deathless, first and greatest father of the dwarves. Though the first Durin lived a life far beyond the span of any other, he did in time pass away, but always another took up his name and ruled on as Durin. The dwarves claim that these rulers are each Durin himself, returned to them from the stone time and again to sit upon the throne of Moria and watch over them, until at last he fell before the power of Durin's Bane, leaving the throne empty, perhaps forever.

Setting out south into Zelem-melek from the Twenty-first Hall, you find the Great Hall of Durin. Shining from the coloured light of many-colored crystal lamps and polished to a fine sheen by ancient Dwarf artisans, the Great Hall gleams. Shadowy and vast, its masterful stonework sitting chill and dark, its mezzanines empty except for skulking Orcs, the Great Hall seems to brood. Where once this place held dancing, laughing Dwarves drunk on mead and gorged on bread and meat, now it sits vacant, a hulking hollow, eerily quiet and sad.

Perhaps the centerpiece of Zelem-melek, the Great Hall of Durin is eerily quiet and staggeringly large. The Enemy’s minions lurk even here, amid the glorious architecture of the Dwarves.

The Great Hall is named for Durin the Deathless, first among Dwarf-kind and fabled founder of Khazad-dûm. He was father of the Longbeards (sometimes called Durin’s folk) and the source of the royal line that ruled this most lavish kingdom of the Dwarves until the Balrog awoke in the time of Durin VI. That beast slew Durin VI—from whom it took its title of Durin’s Bane—and his son Náin I. Soon after, the Dwarves of old withdrew from Moria, leaving it to the overwhelming numbers of Orcs and Goblins that lurk in its passages even now.

The Great Hall and the vaulted corridors that surround it are bounded by grandiose entryways and linked by ornate stairways. The exit to the east leads down a dizzying path, through green light, from the canopy to the roots of a breathtaking stone forest in the old city of Nud-melek: the Second Hall.[1]