Uzkulak, also known as the "Place of the Skull," is a city of the Dawi-Zharr located in the northernmost region of the Dark Lands that served as the original seat of the Dwarfs of the East before the Great Catastrophe transformed their society into that of the Chaos Dwarfs.[2a] Around 1000 IC, in order to fuel the ever-increasing demand for slaves in the Chaos Dwarf empire, a great sea canal was constructed underground linking the Falls of Doom to the north of Zharr-Naggrund with the Sea of Chaos to the west of Uzkulak, giving the Chaos Dwarf fleet an exit to the north.[1a]
Uzkulak is a strange, secretive place, and the bustling workings of its great slave-port and anchorage hide an ancient inner city that is little more than a heavily garrisoned tomb. The forbidden, lower levels of Uzkulak are shunned, even by its masters, and to be consigned to its depths is a punishment reserved for oath-breakers and blasphemers as the worst fate the Chaos Dwarfs can bestow. A fact which, given the malevolent inventiveness of the Daemonsmiths in such matters, speaks much of the horrors which must abide there.[2a]