Hegridus Gralthar I
Hegridus was born 42 years before the birth of the Graltharian Empire (921 AF) and died in the 15th year of the Empire (978 AF).
The great Hegridus was the ancestral leader of Gralthar at the time of the great migration, when the outer keeps and strongholds of the dwarves were abandanded in favour of the more central and better defended cities such as Gralthar. Being the largest of these cities, the majority of dwarven migrants chose Gralthar as their new home, and the sudden growth meant that it quickly become twice, and then three times as populous as any of the other cities of the dwarves.
Given this, Hegridus, formerly know as Hegridus Gloomhammer, declared that he was to be officially know as Hegridus Gralthar the First, Emperor of the Dwarves and Lord of Gralthar. Though there was a little dispute in some of the other settlements over Hegridus' chosen title of Emperor of the Dwarves, he made it clear to his allies that should they fail to recognise him as their Emperor, he would fail to send troops to their aid should the greenskin hordes of the southern plains beneath the mountains of the dwarves rise up again as they had done under the new god, Gralnak, only five years earlier at the Battle of Valgrannar.
The threat of fighting another force like that seen at Valgrannar without support from the largest faction amongst the dwarves was too much of a risk for any of the leaders of the day to take, and though many secretly called Hegridus a bully and a greed crazed idiot, all the settlements of the dwarves bowed to him as their leader, and over time the bond between them grew to the point where their patriotism was no longer false, but rather grew from pride in the dwarven empire. However, this unity was not to be gained until after Hegridus' death, and though he is now celebrated as a wise and powerful unifier of the dwarven people, during his lifetime he was largely despised.
The reign of Hegridus was one which was punctuated by war, with the threat of the greenskins ever present on the southern borders of the empire. Many times the armies of Gralthar were marched out to defend one of the settlements which had sworn allegiance to Emperor Hegridus, and often they came back with more dead than living. It was a hard time to be a dwarven soldier, and those who survived the decade or so of frequent war became toughened fighters, the stuff of legends. Most modern stories of ancient dwarven heroes are rooted around the last few years of Hegridus' reign, when the greenskin threat subsided with the brief imprisonment of their god, and the armies were subsequently reduced, allowing their soldiers to march out independently and become adventurers.
Although many tales of heroic dwarves claim to be set much earlier than this, I would advise that such claims be taken with a pinch of salt - Though it is true that dwarven adventurers have always been amongst the most tough and brave of all races, it is also true that they became significantly tougher during the long running wars with the greenskins after Valgrannar, and most of the heroic feats described in 'ancient' tales could only be achieved by the veterans of those wars.
Hegridus himself was a veteran, and though he only fought from the front perhaps half a dozen times during his reign, he was no less a brave and aggressive soldier than any of his underlings. He was wounded badly in one battle, six years into his reign, and lost most of the use of his left arm, though his healers managed to save the arm itself, and thus was unable to lead as much as he might have wished later in his reign. Other than this wound, he escaped all his other battles with only the blood of his foes upon him.
Hegridus was a brooding man after the wound that ruined his left arm, and many contemporary accounts suggested that this attitude negatively affected his health. Although he survived almost ten years after the wound, Hegridus died relatively young for those not taken by sickness or war.
