Deep in the belly of the great Misty Mountain peak called Celebdil by the Elves, Zirak-zigil by the Dwarves, and Silvertine by Men, one of the great quarries of Khazad-dûm lays in shadow and dust, waiting for its restoration, waiting for the echoes of pick-axes and miners’ songs to fill its empty caverns and tunnels once more. This deep place, known as the Silvertine Lodes, once glittered with ore and shone with the light of crystal lamps glinting off raw mithril. Now it gapes like a hole not just in the earth but in the image of Khazad-dûm.

Once, many long centuries ago, this hole was begun beneath the mountain to supply stone for great palaces and castles in Khazad-dûm and in far-off kingdoms beyond. But the Dwarves of Moria kept digging, beyond caution or reason, mad in their pursuit of mithril, until the Silvertine Lodes were all but exhausted. They scratched away at the dignity of the mines until little was left but a pit in the earth.

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