Dwarf realms

Throughout the history of Arda, there have been many Dwarf realms:

• Khazad-dȗm was the most famous and greatest of all the dwarf kingdoms. Located in the Misty Mountains, it was the home of the Longbeards and was later populated with Firebeards and Broadbeams fleeing Nogrod and Belegost. It prospered for thousands of years until the Dwarves awoke the Balrog which drove them from Khazad-dȗm, it was then renamed Moria ("Black Pit" in Sindarin).
  It is told that a few centuries into the Fourth Age, Durin VII – a descendant (some sources say the son) of Thorin III Stonehelm – at last led Durin's Folk back to recolonize Khazad-dûm, where they remained "until the world grew old and the Dwarves failed and the days of Durin's race were ended".

• Nogrod and Belegost were located in the Blue Mountains. The Firebeards and Broadbeams awoke in the Blue Mountains, and lived there throughout the history of their people. These two houses built the great Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains. It is not clear whether they shared the two cities or whether each house dwelt in its own. Nogrod and Belegost were ruined at the end of the First Age, leaving the Firebeards and the Broadbeams to either rebuild their halls or, as many did relocate to Khazad-dȗm in S.A. 40.
  The Ered Luin would later become a refuge for much of Durin's folk who established Thorin's Halls beyond the Lune during the latter Third Age. However, the Firebeards and Broadbeams continued to live there through the Fourth Age, and probably till the diminishing of the race of Dwarves (there always remained some Dwarves on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains in days afterwards.)

• The Exiled Kingdom in the Grey Mountains were the great halls of which many of Durin's folk relocated to after being exiled from Khazad-dȗm. The Dwarves of the Grey Mountains became very prosperous in their new halls. for over 500 years they mined and defended their halls from the Dragons of the north and the Orcs from the west. Until, finally Cold-drakes forced them from the mountains, and killed their king Dain I. However, dwarves still remained in the Ered Mithrin throughout the Third and Fourth Age after the core population fled, surviving in whatever mines and halls were remaining.

• The Kingdom under the Mountain was one of the greatest kingdoms of the Dwarves. Located at Erebor, it was founded by Thráin I, but was abandoned by his son, Thorin I. It was resettled by Thrór but, years later, Smaug sacked the mountain and drove the Dwarves out. Thorin II Oakenshield refounded the kingdom in T.A. 2941 at the cost of his life.

• The Iron Hills were a range of small mountains rich with iron, colonized by Durin's folk during the First Age. Around the year 2500 of the Third Age, Grór son of Dáin I founded the Iron Hills as an independent kingdom after the Dwarves were exiled from the Grey Mountains, and he became the first Lord of the Iron Hills. The exiles who settled in the Iron Hills were of course in friendly relations with the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain (Erebor), who were of similar like and mind, being kin to Grór and Thrór. After the Battle of Five Armies, many Dwarves of the Iron Hills relocated to the Lonely Mountain after the kingdom of Erebor was re-founded.

• The Glittering Caves of Aglarond were a cave system in the White Mountains behind Helm's Deep. Gimli son of Glóin led a large group of Dwarves of Erebor there after the War of the Ring and became the Lord of the Glittering Caves. His Dwarves performed great services for the Rohirrim and the Men of Gondor, of which the most famous was the making of new gates for Minas Tirith, forged out of mithril and steel. The dwarves of Aglarond restored the Hornburg following the War of the Ring, and it became a fortress they shared with the Rohirrim. The Dwarves of the Glittering Caves carefully tended the stone walls and opened new ways and chambers and hung lamps that filled the caverns with light.

• Rhûn was inhabited by four of the Dwarf clans: the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks and Stonefoots. The distance between their mansions in the East and the Misty Mountains, specifically Gundabad, was said to be as great or greater than that of Gundabad's distance from the Blue Mountains in the West. In the Third Age, Dwarves of those kingdoms journeyed out of Rhûn to join all Middle-earth's other Dwarf clans in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, which was fought in and under the Misty Mountains. After this war, the survivors returned home. Late in the Third Age, when war and terror grew in Rhûn itself, considerable numbers of its Dwarves left their ancient homelands. They sought refuge in Middle-earth's western lands, where some of them met Frodo Baggins.

• The Exiled Realm in Dunland was established by Dwarves fleeing from Erebor after it was sacked by Smaug. This is where Thrór departed when he and his companion Nár journeyed to Moria in TA 2790. After the Battle of Azanulbizar, provoked by the Orcs' brutal slaying of Thrór, Thráin II and Thorin led the remnants of their followers back to Dunland but soon left (to eventually settle in the Ered Luin).