Focuse was a dwarf who grew up in the mines of Moria in the early portion of the Third Age. He was a young dwarf of only fifty years with hardly any beard upon his face. He had two older brothers named Tocuse and Locuse and one very temperamental sister named Rocuse. They lived in a quaint little chamber with their father, Oacuse. The walls were smooth and gray with the common area decorated only with a table and a roaring fireplace along one wall of the room. There was not much to this home as Oacuse was not one for decorations. Each sibling received a square chamber connecting to the common area to call their own. Focuse chose to decorate his chamber with a few old pictures of grassy meadows and the outside world stolen from books well beyond their prime in the city center's long neglected library. As Focuse turned on his rocky slab to fall asleep each night he stared at each drawing dreaming of one day embarking on an adventure far from the dreary caverns of Moria. He was always a bit of a dreamer but learned early on not to speak of desires beyond the mines. For what use could come of such things?

Moria was a new developing dwarf community that was filled with potential. New dwarves came every day to begin their lives again in the mines with hopes of discovering riches deep inside the mountain. Oacuse was one of these hopeful dwarves when he first moved his family to Moria only a hundred years ago before the loss of his wife. Many found Moria appealing as there was no reason to fear disturbance from orcs and other creatures, who often found dwarves to make a good meal, in this portion of the Misty Mountains. Moria was, to all who lived there, a safe new community that might very well become a superpower in Middle Earth.

That is, until one day Focuse mined just a little too deep… The day was just like any other day. Focuse rose with his siblings and ate a hearty breakfast: four mountain goat legs, and two fish from the lake just outside the mountain. As he ate Focuse listened to his brother and sister debate. Tocuse spoke of his fondness for emerald, as he often would. He loved to boast of the glimmer of a particularly large portion he had found years ago. Locuse was quick to retort,"Yer full of it! That was nuthin compared to that cluster of rubies I found last year. It was way bigger and shinier than your little clump of rock!"

Focuse had heard the argument many times and was in no such mood to hear it again on this day. He decided to leave to complete the day's mining alone. He grabbed his pick and mounted his iron cart powered by cables running all throughout the mountain. "Another day another trip into this dismal place," Focuse thought to himself.

As Focuse looked out at the vast array of ledges and caverns to mine in, he decided to travel to one of the deeper caverns of Moria that remained unexplored in hopes of finding some ruby. He liked mining but he wasn’t like his brothers or sister. Focuse couldn’t stop his mind from wandering off as he dreamed of life outside the mines, emancipated from the darkness.

It was on this excursion that Focuse dug a bit too deep. In fact, it was deeper than any had dug in Moria before and it was because of this that he discovered something that changed the course of his life forever.