Erebor Stonewright
If Dwarven miners could be said to be the shapers of the mountains, then stonewrights would certainly be the sculptors. These are the Dwarves responsible for crafting the enormous halls the Dwarves reside in today, and, while the miners did the majority of the actual delving, the stonewrights sculpted the raw interior of the mountains into works of true beauty. The Stonewright's work is never truly done. Forever are the halls of Erebor and Emyn-Engrin being perfected or re-crafted, or new areas are added or converted. In addition to their eternal work on the halls within, the stonewrights also act as masons abroad, constructing sturdy stone structures that can serve as outposts, watchtowers or covert fortresses abroad. Their skill at making structures conform to the landscape is legendary, and it is said that if given the proper location they can build a small if functionable hold within three months. However, they have never quite matched the skill that their ancestors held, but still they dream of matching the wonders of Khazad-Dum in their present-day holds, and the mighty halls of the Dwarves still confound the lesser and more easily awed minds of Men, who themselves are hard put to construct a suitably sturdy stone house.
The stonewrights do not truly have a Guild of their own. As the construction and delving of halls is largely a clan-based effort, the stonewrights remain as such: clan-based workforces. And so the contracting of building rights is delegated to certain clans, and as a result the Stonewright business is quite a bit more political than the professions of Craftsmen and Merchants, who belong to their own Guilds and leave each other alone. The clan-driven workforces of stonewrights (and the same with miners, and to a lesser degree smiths), however, have no such 'safeguards' against rivalries.
The ranks of the stonewrights run as follows:
- Apprentice Stonewright
- Journeyman Stonewright
- Senior Stonewright
- Master Stonewright
