Different Dwarfs

Hello /tg/, I come to you with an inquiry.
I was in the process of setting up a dieselpunk fantasy-ish setting for an upcoming campaign and i've been working on the various races involved. I've already done most of what I wanted; Interdimensional invader Elves, Mongol-German Orcs, Tieflings in Arab-Turkic and Greco-Russian flavors, and a species created through extremely unethical alchemical experimentation, and of course bog-standard humans.
Now, I wanted to include Dwarfs because I would be fricking stupid not to, but I didn't want to just do "humans but short" as most, if not all fantasy writers do. Problem is, I've been having a hard time coming up with any solid ideas to work off of.
I figured you folk might have some suggestions I could work with as a rough basis, and I could go from there.
The help would be greatly appreciated.

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  1. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    I have a version of dwarves I've not had an opportunity to use yet. Basically it's combining 3 earth spirits into one species. It's worth mentioning that, in their original context, they made up the savage races that you might have filled by orcs, goblins and ogres. Each resembles a scandinavian or icelandic troll in appearance, with the big goofy noses
    In the couple of versions I've tried to use, you have Gnomes, Dwarves and Trolls. Gnomes hatch from rocks in large numbers and live for about 50 years, each being between 2 and 3 feet tall. They're very experimental but not particularly wise - they're more analagous to Goblins, Skaven or Kobolds. They're also very weak.
    After 50 years, they enter into a cocoon, becoming indistinguishable from a rock. After a while they hatch, having grown in size to become a dwarf. Dwarves are between 4 and 6 feet tall and are quite middle of the road, quite strong, slower and make for very good warriors. They go through the same cycle, though this time 100 years long.
    After a few more years in a cocoon, they emerge as trolls. They're very wise, slow and strong.

    Between each of the 3 stages they share a few common aspects. They're very much known for being greedy, as they eat minerals and the rarity of the minerals determines the strength of their bodies in their next stages. Eating rocks is something they can do, but it would be like living off of just McDonalds burger buns.
    Being inspired by more traditional dwarves, they had ancestor worship, though in large part because of their reproduction. Whenever a dwarf or troll dies, they collapse into rocks. Each of these rocks turns into a Gnome, who are very slightly different to their parent. They believe, when their god was slain, he collapsed into the mountains and boulders which turned into them.

    I was trying to come up with something that resembled traditional fantasy concepts so it may not work as well for you, but it may give inspiration

  2. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    You don't want conventional dwarves, okay.

    But what are the elements that you feel make an entity a dwarf? Being short? Being enthusiastic about mining? Bad Scottish accents?

    I'm being serious here. Make a list of things that are important for identifying something as a "dwarf", and a list of things you absolutely want to avoid. Use that as a jumping-off point.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      The best post in the thread.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        A dwarf is just a diminutive creature by a point of comparison.
        A ten-foot high race of living stones could be called "dwarves" because their progenitors were fifty feet tall, and it would still be an appropriate use of the word.

  3. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Stop shilling your shit art.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Well the art isn‘t bad for /tg/ shill Standards to be fair

  4. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Here's the thing anon. There are two camps here, and you're kinda pissing off both. Probably because it seems like you're just doing it differently for the sake of doing it differently.
    1) If you say Dwarf people imagine bearded, short, stout Humans. If you mention Elves they imagine tall, beautiful Humans with pointy ears. But you could make the Dwarves live in swamps or the Elves cannibals. Their appearance matters, not their role.
    2) The role is all that matters. Vulcans are basically scientific space Elves and Romulans are Dark Elves. Yoda is an Elf. Mysterious, powerful. The Na'vi are Wood Elves. The role of Dwarves is thus that they are somewhat xenophobic master blacksmiths and miners.
    Frankly I couldn't care less which camp you're in. I'm in the first. I do it really see Yoda as an Elf per se, and Vulcans also have that Humanoid Elvish appearance. But you'll be pissing off some people either way. Just stick to your guns.
    That said, I've done Dwarves that live in swamps and collect bog iron. I've done Dwarves that were high priests, worshipping the sun and channeling its energy into magic. I've done Dwarves that lived under leaves and mushrooms they grew themselves and were peaceful gardeners. As I said, for me the appearance is more important. But you do you.

  5. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    I don't care if you're not actually Monstergarden, you're based.

    I don't think you actually are, though, and I was really intrigued by Monstergarden's first try - making them maggots/grubs based on the fact the dwarves were originally maggots from a Frost Giant's corpse.

    You can pull from Blood of the Earth, where the dwarves were basically biological robots who were utilitarian to the extreme. It's the logical endpoint of 'what if an entire race were subterranian, building-obsessed engineers?'. Alas, the dwarves still look like dwarves, but they're very insect-like in mindset, so you could use the grub/maggot thing he did.

    Pull from non-Euro races, too. Menehune in Hawai'i are dwarf-spirits who love to build stuff, and while that's not exactly mold-breaking, the way you can use Poly/Micro/Melanesian civilization ship-building and architecture isn't, Hell, there's an entire lost city in the Pacific that was basically built to have waterways entirely replace roads, and it still stands, despite the sea!

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/aICvaFD.png

      Hello /tg/, I come to you with an inquiry.
      I was in the process of setting up a dieselpunk fantasy-ish setting for an upcoming campaign and i've been working on the various races involved. I've already done most of what I wanted; Interdimensional invader Elves, Mongol-German Orcs, Tieflings in Arab-Turkic and Greco-Russian flavors, and a species created through extremely unethical alchemical experimentation, and of course bog-standard humans.
      Now, I wanted to include Dwarfs because I would be fricking stupid not to, but I didn't want to just do "humans but short" as most, if not all fantasy writers do. Problem is, I've been having a hard time coming up with any solid ideas to work off of.
      I figured you folk might have some suggestions I could work with as a rough basis, and I could go from there.
      The help would be greatly appreciated.

      Then you've got really tiny dwarf-guys from various African myths. A lot of them are great hunters. And very hairy, too.

  6. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    A dwarf is just a diminutive creature by a point of comparison.
    A ten-foot high race of living stones could be called "dwarves" because their progenitors were fifty feet tall, and it would still be an appropriate use of the word.

  7. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    This is the third thread in 2 days to discuss "different dwarves" using an image of this exact dwarf. Is this an elaborate troll or stealth marketing for a YouTube channel?

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      It's probably just an autistic anon who thinks his idea of dwarves is super cool and interesting or something.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Well, you're certainly half right.
        I was just looking for inspiration, and I just pulled that image off the internet because I thought it got the point across well. I had no idea this happened more than once.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          I think there's either a genuine grassroots enthusiasm for the design or a concerted effort to spread it for marketing reasons (or both). I guess you coming across it is just evidence it's working.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Or it's the even more autistic reverse shill trying to make something seem suspiciously popular by reposting it in quick succession to force backlash/hatred against it because they actually don't like it.

  8. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    An idea I had once played off combining a few dwarven tropes into one cohesive idea.
    In this case, that dwarven females don't exist, that dwarves are obsessed with stone and shaping it, and that dwarves often create golems as automated workers and warriors.
    Pic related.
    The concept is that golems are just immature/unfinished dwarves, who have not been chosen for true dwarfdom and thus lack souls, emotions, or minds. It's not impossible that golems might be made dwarves if they're seen to distinguish themselves later, but dwarves have such discerning eyes(and stubborn temperaments) that this is rare.
    As a result of dwarves reproducing via stonework and golem production, this changes a lot of how they view things. For example, a firstborn is RARELY prioritized in dwarven households, as the first product is most often the sloppiest.
    As well, dwarves with many children are looked down upon, as it shows a lack of judgement and selectivity. Similarly, dwarves with bad children are rarely sympathized with and often ridiculed moreso than even other communities. Afterall, if their son can't behave then that's clearly bad craftsdwarfship at work.
    The dwarven ideal is centered around the idea of each generation literally building up the next generation to be better dwarves.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      That last part is where differentiation comes in though.
      Not every dwarf has agreed on what exactly IS the ideal dwarf, and clans are born out of famous craftsdwarves who struck out to try something new, believing their genius could create better dwarves. Many have attempted this, only to fail or fall into obscurity. The few that succeeded created whole new clans, or even new subspecies of dwarf, created to fit whatever designs the original creator had in mind.
      This is also the source of many clan loyalties and feuds. Each dwarf is tied closely to his creator, and him to his creator, so on and so forth. Every dwarf has a long family line, and countless cousins he has branched from, all originating from a clan creator who first carved his kind into being. He is determined to prove that his creator was not wrong, and that he and his design is indeed the best form of dwarf. Bickering between dwarves ends up as a strange combination of nobility bickering about breeding, and also craftsmen critiquing eachother's work. A dwarf saying that another dwarf's father "Couldn't carve butter with a warm knife" is essentially their equivalent of telling a human he's "a son of a b***h".
      As for how dwarves view other intelligent species, it would be an understatement to say they find them strange. The idea of romantic love seems strange to dwarves, who's reproduction is essentially asexual. As well, lust is a strange concept to them. Though one could make uncomfortable postulations about whether the dwarven obsession with stoneworking is effectively their equivalent to chronic masturbation, taken to the extreme of cultural expectation.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      That last part is where differentiation comes in though.
      Not every dwarf has agreed on what exactly IS the ideal dwarf, and clans are born out of famous craftsdwarves who struck out to try something new, believing their genius could create better dwarves. Many have attempted this, only to fail or fall into obscurity. The few that succeeded created whole new clans, or even new subspecies of dwarf, created to fit whatever designs the original creator had in mind.
      This is also the source of many clan loyalties and feuds. Each dwarf is tied closely to his creator, and him to his creator, so on and so forth. Every dwarf has a long family line, and countless cousins he has branched from, all originating from a clan creator who first carved his kind into being. He is determined to prove that his creator was not wrong, and that he and his design is indeed the best form of dwarf. Bickering between dwarves ends up as a strange combination of nobility bickering about breeding, and also craftsmen critiquing eachother's work. A dwarf saying that another dwarf's father "Couldn't carve butter with a warm knife" is essentially their equivalent of telling a human he's "a son of a b***h".
      As for how dwarves view other intelligent species, it would be an understatement to say they find them strange. The idea of romantic love seems strange to dwarves, who's reproduction is essentially asexual. As well, lust is a strange concept to them. Though one could make uncomfortable postulations about whether the dwarven obsession with stoneworking is effectively their equivalent to chronic masturbation, taken to the extreme of cultural expectation.

      No one has responded to this which is a shame because I think it's really neat.
      I like your dwarves in the setting, I'm kinda curious what the rest of the species in your setting look like as a result.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        I'm afraid I don't have much to offer.
        It was part of a collaborative writing project, and the dwarves were my focus.
        As I recall, most of the other races were pretty standard though some had some weird quirks.
        Orcs grew from plants and their skin was green because of photosynthesis or something, but it did little to distinguish them from WH orcs, who do the same but with fungus and a whole ecosystem.

  9. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    I kind of feel like dwarves and gnomes and elves should all be smushed back into their tiny elf shoe repair archetype. They're all just mischevious hidden workers with lots of skill. Toss gremlins in their as anti-dwarves.

  10. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    The video you stole this picture from has some great ideas for dwarves.
    >making them more bug like, since some folklore said they were formed from the maggots of the giant that was made into the Earth. Maybe they only have one Queen Dwarf per mine that lays the colony's eggs.
    >play up the whole mining aspect. Make them magically living metal beings. Like a naturally evolving robotic organism.
    >you can give them a weird environment instead to make them stand out. The toxic environments of their volcanic cities is why their beards act as a natural air filtering mask.

  11. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    bump

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