Carbines and repeating handguns? I don't know, assuming that there's a relatively small population of Dralok and the cat's already out of the bag on that technology--how are mundane humans (let alone empowered gunslingers) still cowed into serfdom?

Putting that aside for now though, if the Dralok are relatively emotionless and interested in maintaining a certain status quo that ensures their existence...wouldn't they be much more agreeable governors than humans? Not to step on any toes, but what if instead of the Dralok being greedy pioneers consumed by a magical addiction...they were just here first?

So human settlers tame the frontier and push an indigenous people off their sacred lands (Or find the remains of a civilization suspiciously absent of people or their remains) They mine and uncover verse for the first time, experiencing a boom likened to the gold rush, digging deeper. Eventually they uncover the Great Dralokian Catacombs, which could exist as anything from mundane burial chamber turned immortal sanctum from exposure to magic underground to a monastic order of deathless scholars. Newly risen (Having previously had neither the tools, need or desire to dig themselves out) the Dralok would immediately be powerful players in a land that is already being divided by colonial powers and displaced tribes--one where being powerful and wishing to do the most good could be a dangerous overestimation of the human character.

Heck, you could even go a whole other route and have the Verse and Dralok discovered by a PRISON COLONY established as a mining hub. Having them declare self-sovereignty with their newfound power. Then it could be a power struggle between old rivalries as the resident inmates via for power over each other while still under the yoke of a strict yet benevolent Dralok rule.

Just a series of thoughts of course.