Dwarves

One of the Elder Races, brought low and to the brink extinction by the cruel march of history.

Civilization and Culture

History

According to the Dwarves, they were the first Humanoid race to achieve sentience. The most ancient texts of the Dwarves tell of a time where they held larges swathes of land, mostly in the foothills of the major mountains ranges of the plateaus, and grew their own crops under the sun. With the appearance and expansion of the younger races, humans mostly, the Dwarves began renting their lands and retreating in partially subterranean cities and fortresses to pursue mining and crafting. Dwarven Lords treated their humanoid subject fairly but sternly. In order to maintain their supremacy over them, revealing dwarven crafting or building techniques to outsiders was punishable was death and removal from dwarven records.

Relations with Elven Kingdom were always tense and many wars were fought over the control of human populations farming arable lands. The Eldar Golden Age saw the dwarven kingdoms at their peak of engineering prowess. Dwarven scholars did notice that the humanoid populations, mainly humans, was making it more difficult to maintain control over them. Furthermore, humans were making great strides in technological progress, slowly eroding away the dwarves’ advantage. Gradually, during the Age of Gods, the Dwarven Lords were forced to relinquish their control of the humanoid populations while maintaining good relations to keep the grain flowing back to the dwarven kingdom which lacked the agricultural production to be self sufficient.

Dwarven Kingdoms were some of the early casualties of the Age of Emancipation. Their dependence on food imports made them vulnerable to trade blockades and sieges. Many Human kingdoms or theocracies, struggling with the encroachment of Tasnica or Thamassa, tried to subjugate the Dwarven Kingdoms for their vast mineral resources and advanced technology, chiefly their mastery of gunpowder and cannon making. These wars usually turned out to be costly endeavors. Many Kingdom who tried, weaken by the struggle, fell themselves in turn to invaders.

Contrary to most conflicts in Acarn, where the vanquished are generally enslaved, Dwarves were mostly spared that fate. Simply put, Dwarves were found to make poor slaves. For starters, their innate toughness meant they could more easily endure the pain inflicted by slave marks, forcing more efficient, but more expensive marks to be developed. Second, their culturally ingrained stubbornness made them less compliant than desirable. Thus, most invading forces took to the practice of mass executing dwarven prisoners, sparing only their most valuable engineers, craftsman, builders and their families, the latter to better secure the former's collaborations.

With no land to call their own, dwarven populations that escaped genocide or slavery eventually managed to integrate into cosmopolitan settlements, mostly on the outskirts. In most kingdoms, dwarves are considered second class citizens. Though their craftsmanship is appreciated. Remnants of many dwarven clans formed mercenary companies, often sapers and artillery units, that move from conflict to conflict, never settling down. Despite their cultural predisposition for honor, many such groups turned to banditry and piracy for survival when work was scarce.

During the Great War, Tasnica and Thamassa were keen to employ dwarven mercenary companies. Given the militaristic tradition in most of the dwarven clans, large numbers of them answered the call. More importantly, clan leaders saw an opportunity and negotiated to be paid in land that they could call their own. For the most part, few of those deal were honored to the initial conditions. Many clans were completely lost to the opposing side, or so reduced in numbers that only small estates were granted. In the case of Thamasa, none of the deals were honored. Those that rebelled were slain. There was one exception, clan Firebeards which secured almost about fifty square miles of lands in Dacia, near Ferapen, which was never contested by King Yhorm when he took over.

The death toll of nearly all clans was great and offset the gains. The Great War, left deep scar in the dwarven collective psyche. The worst trauma came from the battles that pitted dwarves against their own kind who served the opposing great power.

Given the historical circumstances, the dwarven population in the post-Great War era is dangerously low, to the point where some scholar have begun to consider the possibility of extinction. It is also experiencing a generational schism. Indeed, the cultural response for dwarves that survived the genocide was to double down on clan values and accentuate their traditional insular nature. The possibility of reclaiming lands of their own fuelled the clan leader’s enthusiasm to join the fighting. The young generation, that did not experienced the genocide initially, followed their elders into battle with zeal. Most came away with deep resentment for their elders, to the point where clan, as the structuring core of dwarven culture is collapsing.

Traditionalists Dwarves are those who maintain clan affiliation as the most important part of their identity. Most of the older generation identify with that view as many younger individuals chose to do. Traditionalist dwarves tend to live in insular communities on the outskirts of towns or smaller communities or as nomadic mercenary companies. Modernist Dwarves promote integration into cosmopolitan cities and towns. Obviously, they still tend to gravitate together for the sake of forming families and having children. They do face the challenge of claiming equal rights.Dwarves in Orenzia have equal rights though none of them are Lords. Also, since the Third constitution of the Tasnican Republic, dwarves enjoy the same rights and privileges as any non-mage citizens.

It is arguable that Slave Dwarves are involuntary members of Modernist dwarves.

Origin/Ancestry

Eldar Race