Dwarves of your Worlds.

[thecoldembrace]

I am by nature, a very curious fellow. Besides magic being my most beloved part of fantasy, there are the dwarves. Now I first read about Tolkien's dwarves when I was little, and loved them ever since. When I first started writing, I always seemed to have 1/3rd of my stories about a dwarf. As I grew up I collected the lore and knowledge of other people's dwarves as I went along. Then when I finally built my own dwarves when I made my own world I took the culminated knowledge and built what my friends describe as "dwarves that stand like giants."
To summarize, I took, Tolkien's dwarves, WoW's dwarves, Warhammer's dwarves, and Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance dwarves and mixed them together, took out what I hated and kept the best. Most importantly, I removed the image of the dwarven race as dying. I've always hated the idea of this most interesting Elder Race as being far beyond its golden years and is slowly vanishing from the world, leaving only their works behind.
The second being... I made sure my dwarf women didn't have facial hair.

If you have them, what are the dwarves of your world's like? Feed my curiosity.

-Cold

 

[Jabrosky]

I don't have a project which incorporates dwarves or any other Tolkien race right now. Whenever I do consider them at all, I give them an East Asian flavor. In the Warcraft universe, dwarves are the ones with firearms, so making them Asian-like would make sense since Asians invented gunpowder. Asians tend to be on the shorter side of the human height spectrum anyway.

That said, I can think of two other environments that might breed a dwarf-like race. You could have dwarves on small islands (the phenomenon is actually called insular dwarfism). Alternatively you could have darker-skinned dwarves in a tropical rainforest analogous to certain hunter-gatherer groups in Africa and Southeast Asia (e.g. Mbuti and Aeta).

 

[thecoldembrace]

I kept technology in my world to a limit, staying away from the use of gunpowder. My dwarves do use a limited steam power, but not really militarily. However, I stayed true to the vast engineering knowledge dwarves seem to possess. I also kept them to their mountain/underground flavor as son and daughters of the earth.
It would be curious to see dwarfs as a sea-faring race instead of a landlocked one. Might be an interesting revision.

 

[Ireth]

The closest thing I have to dwarves are the svartalfar, which are sort of conflated with the dokkalfar of Norse myth. I suppose technically they could be seen as a subset of elves, though they are quite distinct in origin and culture from the ljosalfar. In-story, the svartalfar are kind of a blend of dwarves and orcs, with a bit of drow thrown in. They live underground in the realm of Svartalfheimr, in vast, well-wrought caverns similar to Moria or Erebor; they are despised by humans and ljosalfar, and many have a brutish nature, much like orcs; and they have the pointed ears and coloration of drow. They are also notably shorter than the ljosalfar, averaging about 5'0" to 5'5". Ljosalfar tend to be more in the 5'9" - 6'2" range.

 

[ThinkerX]

Hmmm...

...yes there are dwarves in my world. They are the 'most human' of the nonhuman races, and there are significant dwarf enclaves in some human cities. That said...they don't bear a great deal of resemblance to the dwarves of Tolkien or D&D.

In my worlds, dwarves were created from humans, part of a project by the mostly departed 'ancient aliens'.

They live little longer than humans, on average, but not centuries longer. More like a few decades. They're short - as in rarely topping four feet, usually closer to 3.5 feet. They do engage in mining and have reputations as excellent craftsmen...but lack the 'warrior supreme' reputation of dwarves found elsewhere - true dwarves simply don't have the strength and stamina for that sort of thing. This doesn't stop them from taking up military service, but they're usually part of an engineering or policing contingent, not frontline troops.

Yes, some dwarves can work magic, and certain clans among them retain substantial lore from their time among the ancient aliens (the ancient aliens used a combination of technology and 'magic' - psionic ability). These dwarf clans retain far greater knowledge of the technical side of this ancient science than pretty much anybody else.

In my stories so far...I've had a nasty tempered dwarf magician, a dwarf chief of police for a fair sized (human) city, and a high ranking dwarf military officer in another city, plus a trio of villainous black humored dwarf servants to an evil human wizard. In the works are a dwarf mercenary, and a dwarf 'major-domo' of sorts, top flunky for a high ranking human noble estate.

That said, none of my dwarf characters are major, central figures.

 

[Gurkhal]

I tend to prefer only humans in my stories but when I consider dwarfs I normally run them pretty much as the convention goes. If I wanted something which goes against the coventional dwarfs I shall pick another race or make one of my own instead.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Copied this from my wiki:

The most notable feature of the members of the Marshal Mushroom family is that they grow fruits that when fully grown become distinct individuals completely separate from the main fungus. The most well known member of the Marshal Mushroom family is the Giant Rock Marshal whose fruits make up that which is also referred to as the Dwarven race.

The main purpose of the fruits is to collect the spores that the main fungus needs for sustenance and reproduction. The fruits are equipped with large amounts of fine hair with which to catch the spores and bring them to the main fungus (this is why dwarves don't wash their beards).

 

[buyjupiter]

Dwarves! I love them. They're the focus of one WIP that only has dwarves, gnomes, and a less than pleasant bad-guy race that I created from scratch.

My dwarves are fairly normal dwarves. They mine precious stones, they do metalwork, they're grumpy (well, one is), they fight with battle-axes. They all have beards, even the women, but one of the struggles my MC faces (since she's a teenage dwarf) is that of fashion. Which is totally against traditional dwarf values, as seen by her father, one of the most traditional dwarf men--which is kind of silly since they've been kicked out of their mountain by the evil race and the gnomes and now the dwarves are poor.

I'm going to spend most of the novel dealing with issues of poverty and the quest to restore the homeland. There are family secrets to unveil, alliances to make, and one gang of dwarves that are pretty nasty to overcome before my MC can complete her quest.

There are no elves, no dragons, and no hobbit-like creatures for those wondering about that.

 

[Devor]

Dwarves are a personal favorite of mine, and back in college I played WoW, and then WAR for a little bit, as part of all-dwarf roleplaying guilds. In WoW it was a military regiment, in WAR our guild played off the game's death mechanics and members each had a story of how they met one of the dwarf gods and why they couldn't stay dead. We did a lot of awesome RP/story events.

Of my own stuff, though, I have notes somewhere about the Dwarves of Murdered River, who dammed up one of elves' sacred rivers during an old war and now live in the walls of the chasm left behind.

 

[Queshire]

Hmmmm... well, broadly speaking, my dwarves tend to fall in one of two categories depending on
the story / setting.

Type A) SPAAAAAAACE Dwarves: Nearly rendered extinct due to an engineered magical smart virus plague which may or may not have been designed by the elves. They only managed to survive by binding their traditional magitech power armor to their body, essentially turning themselves into cyborgs. Unfortunately between the chaos of the mass die off resulting in lost access codes and the cyborg augmentations causing their devices to not register them as proper dwarves the traps and defenses of their cities and fortresses became just as dangerous to them as to any invader. They were forced to leave their home and become refugees. All in all, their numbers were so low that they were forced to rely on cloning just to bolster their numbers enough that they wouldn't die out.

Things are better now. The smart virus has died out, between their cloning tech and normal time the Dwarven Refugees have enough numbers that they're not at risk of dying out, they've established themselves in their host cities with their magical engineering expertise, and are creating or hiring adventuring expeditions to help clear out and reclaim their lost holdings. That said though, they still primarily rely on cloning for reproduction and cybernetically augment themselves as it has become tradition.

Type B) SpOoOoKy Dwarves: The Dwarves most people think of aren't true dwarves at all. One of their ancestors might have been a dwarf, or they might have been fostered by a dwarf, but they aren't true dwarves. True dwarves are spirit folk, or perhaps a type of fae. They are made up of the stuff of the underground, the darkness of the deep places that have never seen the light, except! For their eyes, two smoldering embers pulled from the forge. They can pass through stone, and frankly look like Cousin Itt from the Adams family. Those of Dwarf descent can make magic items worthy of Heroes, but true Dwarves can make magic items and weapons worthy of the Gods and Lords of the Spirit Realm. They tend to ask prices that one isn't willing to pay for their wares such as taking a grudge as payment for a weapon commissioned just to settle that grudge and other deal-with-the-devil style terms, so for a mortal hero dealing with a Dwarf the advice is to have a plan in mind to trick them.

 

[thecoldembrace]

Has anyone broken the mold and gotten rid of the stereotypical Scottish/Irish/Welsh/Russian dwarf.. at least accent wise? I had one friend say that Dwarves would be amazing if they had a Jamaican accent, but I don't know if that would make them appear more foppish than usual.

 

[Ireth]

Has anyone broken the mold and gotten rid of the stereotypical Scottish/Irish/Welsh/Russian dwarf.. at least accent wise? I had one friend say that Dwarves would be amazing if they had a Jamaican accent, but I don't know if that would make them appear more foppish than usual.

Well, my svartalfar are Norse, if that counts. XD

 

[Queshire]

Heheheh, I've fallen into the trap of thinking of Dwarves as Russians myself, but I don't have the patience to write accents so it wouldn't show up much in my story.

 

[ThinkerX]

No wonky accents here. Some dwarves do have bluish skins, though, a steal from the Kumbandas (sp?) of south asia.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm still world building and don't have a deep understanding of my dwarves yet, but I do know one deviation from the norm: my dwarves are pale.

I figure, they don't live in sunlight, so they'd be pale, like other cave-dwelling creatures. I don't think they'll have magic, but they will have such skill with crafting it can sometimes look like magic. Slightly longer-lived than humans because I use the dog formula: smaller breeds live longer than big breeds. Using humans as the benchmark, giants and ogres don't live very long at all, while dwarves and gnomes live longer, and pixies live longest of all. So, dwarves, longer by a bit. Maybe old age being ninety or so.

No big underground cities. Underground architecture won't support it. They're much happier in cozier spaces (we'd call it cramped) and with little light (we'd call it dark). Other races came from under ground and adapted to life under the sun, but dwarves have resisted it. They prefer to live in their small clan caves, with the only "cities" being trading enclaves at the mouth of a mountain.

 

[Guy]

I've always preferred dwarves over elves. In my world I've kept much of the traditional - short and stocky, very strong, master craftsmen. Preferred weapons are axes, hammer and maces. I figure their stocky builds wouldn't be conducive to using really effective bows, so when distance is called for they use crossbows. I thought up a repeating crossbow for them. It probably wouldn't work in real life, but I think it sounds reasonably plausible. Though they spend a lot of time under ground, they have an equal number of villages and settlements above ground, too. The men are bearded but not the women. My dwarvish women are very curvy, voluptuous, and generally cheerful. The men are generally even tempered. They love riddles and jokes. Their beer is the absolute best in the world. Above all, they are practical minded. Their products are in high demand because they are as reliable as the turning of the world. When making purely luxury items, though, they love the artistry of the intricate. They're highly sought after as engineers and, in siege warfare, as sappers. Their steel is noted for its strength and durability.

 

[Devor]

Has anyone broken the mold and gotten rid of the stereotypical Scottish/Irish/Welsh/Russian dwarf.. at least accent wise? I had one friend say that Dwarves would be amazing if they had a Jamaican accent, but I don't know if that would make them appear more foppish than usual.

Appalling!

I used to roleplay with a heavy accent, but I don't know if it was Scottish. I was mocked for sounding Canadian a few times for using words like "aboot."

((edit))

I completely forgot, even after Ireth mentioned Norse dwarves, but I actually do have a pretty different version of the Norse Dwarf that I spent a lot of time developing. It's based on Norse mythology and a Norse setting. The "true dwarves" are based more on mythology, but anyone with "dwarf blood," like a half-dwarf, would bear a lot of resemblance to the typical dwarves.

Half-dwarves, for instance, might wonder the land as master runesmiths. One wears a horned helmet into battle, and one of the vikings mocks him for it (since they're historically bogus). But there's a lot that's fittingly different to them, too. For instance, since a dwarf in mythology turns to stone in daylight, the half-dwarves might look like wrinkled, statuesque old men by day, and young and refreshed by night.

 

[Nagash]

I've never been hellbent on extracting entire races off other universes and then distillate them in my own, but when building your world you inevitably end up forging some archetypes others thought about before you - hell, most of the time you're inspired by the work of those before you. I made a case of closing my universes to typical Tolkien-ish fantasy creatures such as elves and dwarves, but somehow, the latter squished themselves in after a while. Technically, there are no dwarves in my world; no lovable half size bearded warrior here, no sir. Yet, while shaping the human kingdoms, I couldn't resist creating a nation of norsemen, scattered across the frozen mountains and the snowy valleys, with one great capital-city...within the mountain.

It's kind of an Ironforge meet Erebor deal, only built by men resembling norsemen as we usually imagine them, and lorded by a few "high-skarls". The city took centuries to build, and as a result, it's probably the safest fortress in the known world. As I said, there is no such thing as dwarves, but obviously, the "city under the mountain" idea isn't new and definitely labelled dwarven culture. This should attest of my deep love for dwarves and their stunningly marvelous cities.

 

[Hainted]

I modified the Abatwa, A Zulu legend from Africa. While they still have the oversized ears and cracked-stone like eyes of all dwarves they are split into two main cultures. The Abatwa, who live in cities that lie underground as well as towers built with the help of their Rottweiler sized ant companions, and a pure nomadic culture, The Umutwa, who hunt large game, and carry poisoned arrows

 

[thecoldembrace]

In total, I created four major dwarf clans, six minor (though still powerful) clans, and two holy clans, because in my world twelve is a sacred number to the dwarves. A few of the clans live above ground, and one has a city on the peak of a mountain and are the only race in my world that actually takes to the sky, by dwarf airships and on the backs of griffons.
I created each of these twelve clans with their own specific Holds and lands and what they each specialize in. While dwarfs in my world are very good at mining and architecture and so forth, I wanted a broad expanse for my dwarves.
For example, my Clan Grimaxe dwarves are the best offensive dwarven infantry in the world, while my Dreadhammer Clan dwarves are the most defensive oriented of their race with powerful warriors and superb citadel construction. At the same time, I changed the nature of magic in my world to suit my own tastes, and wanted my dwarfs who traditionally in most other worlds distrust magic or can't use magic, to be able to have their own flare of magic. For this my Frostfoe dwarves are magical in nature with very powerful Runecasters and some of the greatest runesmiths, which in turn also make exquisitely made magical items.