Duergar
"We cannot get out. The way is blocked and they are coming," — miner's note found in remains of a duergar battle
The duergar are a species descended from dwarves that live deep within the Underdark and have been corrupted by it and its denizens. Originally a clan of mountain dwarves that delved too deep during the Mithril Era, the duergar ran afoul of the illithid, an ancient race of aberrations from the Astral Plane. The illithid enslaved the duergar darkening their spirits and turning them into creatures equally evil to the mind flayer tyrants. Eventually, the duergar rose up, some say with the aid of the Kiss of Lies, Rheseldar, or some other dark god. Today, they remain in the Underdark, forever twisted by its influence and ever eager to strike back against other subterranean societies or the surface world they believe abandoned them to this fate.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Duergar have many of the same anatomical features as true mountain dwarves, with a stocky build, long beards, and lungs designed for long periods of exertion in oxygen poor environments. Like other dwarves, duergar have great physical fortitude, allowing them to work in dangerous and high-stress situations. This made them ideal slaves for the illithid, but over the course of their subjugation, the duergar also developed a kind of mental fortitude. They now possess a great deal of mental fortitude, meaning they can shrug off many common charms, illusions, and other beguiling spells.
Duergar bear similar dark marks of other mortal races whom have spent too long dwelling the Underdark. Like the drow or the svirfneblin, they have grey skin which ranges in coloration from pale ash to purplish-black. Their hair is stark white, as are their eyes, giving them a haunting appearance. Male and female duergar are predisposed to baldness.
Two of the most remarkable traits of the duergar are their enlarge and invisibility abilities. Either granted to them by the illithid's centuries of experimentation or as a result of the strange magics of the Underdark, duergar are able to temporarily grow to triple their normal size, along with any gear they carry. While enlarged, duergar are far stronger than they are in their normal form, allowing them to take on foes that would otherwise literally dwarf them. Additionally, duergar can temporarily turn invisible, an ability that works particularly well against surface dwellers who rely on sight more than their other senses. Both of these abilities require a duergar to be fairly well rested and can only be used once per rest without over exerting one's self. These abilities are not actually magical but psionic in nature, adding further credibility that they were imparted to the duergar by the illithid.
Genetics and Reproduction
Dwarves reproduce in much the same way as the other mortal species. Unlike many of the other Elder Races, dwarves are not cursed with exceptionally slow gestation periods, bearing children after a period of about eleven months of gestation. Duergar in particular bear larger families than other dwarves, with one male often averaging as many as twelve offspring over the course of their lives, with some having as many as thirty children. This helps ensure that the duergar's clan and stronghold remains protected and has a large supply of miners and warriors to help protect them in the dangerous Underdark.
Growth Rate & Stages
Duergar mature at the same rate as other dwarves. Unlike other dwarves, duergar consider their young fully mature by age thirty so they can better serve their stronghold for longer. However, their lifespans are considerably shorter, usually lasting no more than a century.
Ecology and Habitats
Duergar rarely leave the Underdark and when they do, it is almost always to bring war and destruction to the surface world. They are most comfortable within their underground strongholds, rarely leaving them unless to scout, hunt, make war, or expand their mining operations. Strongholds are often located near veins of precious minerals or sources of water. Much of the subterranean wildlife near a duergar stronghold is wiped out by hunting parties both for food and to ensure the security of mining operations.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Duergar subsist entirely on subterranean food, such as mushrooms, moon wheat, and rothé. Most of their diet is meat, with duergar rarely turning down a creature to hunt and eat. Even other mortals may be considered on the menu, especially among duergar communities that practice blood magic.
Additional Information
Social Structure
The society of the duergar is a grim reflection of the typical dwarven stronghold. Both places constantly bustle with activity, forges and picks and hammers always at work, but that's where the similarity ends. In a dwarven stronghold, the atmosphere is one of optimistic industry. Dwarves enjoy what they do, and their dedication to furthering the clan and leaving a proper legacy shows through in every aspect of a clan's operation.
In contrast, the duergar care nothing for the dwarven ideal of achieving utmost mastery of a craft. For this reason, they pay no mind to their environment or the aesthetics of their creations. In a duergar stronghold, the atmosphere is one of unrelenting drudgery. Where as dwarves see themselves as always working together to achieve a common enlightenment, the duergar see themselves as cogs in an endless machine that one day will bring down all that oppose them. The duergar pray that this will finally bring them the happiness and peace that they have so wanted since their enslavement and liberation.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Duergar are found in large populations only in the Underdark. Beyond the Material Plane, some duergar do exist in the Shadowfell, a grim mirror reflection of the Material Plane where all is cast in shadow and death.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The haunting white eyes of the duergar grant them superb darkvision, allowing them to see up to 120 ft. in total blackness as if it were dimlight. However, centuries of living in a world with no daylight has caused them to become highly sensitive to the rays of the sun. While in bright sunlight, duergar struggle to make Perception checks that rely on sight and can't attack as well as they can in total darkness.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Many duergar societies have domesticated a kind of giant, subterranean hunting spider called steeders. These creatures are highly aggressive and generally solitary in the wild, to the point of cannibalizing their own kind if left in a pen with a weaker individual. They have a low kind of cunning, allowing duergar to direct with them with simple hand gestures and verbal clicks. Steeders do not spin webs but use their webbing to coat their legs, allowing them to climb virtually any surface with ease. Only through great discipline and diligence can the duergar control these creatures.
Civilization and Culture
Beauty Ideals
The duergar care nothing for the dwarven ideal of achieving utmost mastery of a craft. For this reason, they pay no mind to their environment or the aesthetics of their creations. Quantity, not quality, is at the heart of their efforts, as the duergar strive to craft as many items as possible in the shortest period of time. Duergar goods aren't flawed or substandard, but are plain to the point of austerity. To the duergar, a manufactured object is useful only for the function it performs.
Average Technological Level
Duergar, like all dwarves, are highly industrious. Their strongholds are often built near precious metals or strategic reserves of minerals that they extract to grow their ever-expanding operations. Some communities have even begun to master steam-power, harvesting coal and other flammable materials to power great factories that fuel their eternal engine for war.
In recent decades, the duergar have begun to move away from the practice of slavery. Some of them have discovered that mechanical servitors powered by psionic energy are more durable and more efficient than slaves. Thus, various kinds of automatons have been developed, each designed to fill a role within a duergar stronghold. Some clans have created models to make raiding parties more formidable. Other forms include digging and tunneling machines, golem-like monstrosities that tear through rock and extract ore from it.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Hrútur
During their time in slavery, the duergar were forbidden from writing or keeping records. Much of their written culture was lost and their history kept alive only through oral tradition. However, at some point during their captivity, the duergar invented a covert system of record keeping known as Hrútur. Originally meaning knot, a hrútur is a series of three or more strands of facial hair which has been knotted or braided to encode meaning. As a three dimensional recording device, Hrútur can be "written" and "read" in total darkness, making them an ideal language system for the Underdark. Additionally, because of the speed with which duergar facial hair grows, it can be readily produced by individual duergar with no outside tools or materials. Hrútur fall into two categories: worn hrútur, which remains a part of a duergar's beard and mustache and denotes basic information such as clan, age, job, marital status, etc; and cut hrútur, which is removed from a duergar's beard and can be passed between individuals. Cut hrútur are often used as to record data and numerical values although they do have a full logosyllabic structure that can be read like words on a page. Though logosyllabic, hrútur is not spoken and so can be used as a code for other languages. It actually derives much of its grammar from the illithid language Qualish, though trace amounts of Old Shanindari have been found. As a result, many written interpretations of Hhrútur dialects have a distinctly aberrant sound to them that differs wildly from surface dwelling dwarvish languages. Hrútur prose is short and rarely poetic; much like most duergar themselves, the language emphasizes getting to the point. To that end, most dialects of Hrútur lack adverbs and very rarely incorporate metaphors or symbolic language. Most hrútur dialects struggle to incorporate new concepts or words, perhaps as a result of this reluctance to symbology. During the illithid captivity, duergar used hrútur to communicate in total darkness and covertly pass information between enslaved individuals. Histories of the duergar revolt claim that at some point the illithid learned of this system and forcibly shaved many of their enslaved but by then the system had disseminated to rebel groups outside of illithid control and the duergar were able to escape their captivity shortly after. Today, it is said that many illithid see beards and facial hair as deceitful and forbid them among their captives. Today, hrútur remains an important form of record keeping among the duergar. Many duergar societies use them to store inventory, tax obligations, census records, and military organization. They are often hung from caver cages as labels, the three dimensional maps used by the duergar to navigate the Underdark. A carved version of Hrútur forms the basis of most duergar written languages, though these are a relatively recent development and many draw equal influence from other Underdark languages used by the drow or svirfneblin. Hrútur may have originally been as status symbols, encoding information about the individual who wore them. Some surface-dwelling dwarf cultures practice a similar kind of braiding, though the braids are symbolic rather than an actual logosyllabic system.Culture and Cultural Heritage
Duergar often argue that they are in fact the most civilized of all the races because they have but three laws that govern all that they do. These three rules, they argue, is all that the duergar people need in order to survive, prosper, and eventually rule the Underdark and the surface dwellers.
- Our Pockets Are Never Full: The duergar are fueled in all their actions by two pervasive feelings: ambition that never flags and greed that can never be satisfied. Though they might scheme and plot at great length s to gain treasure or prestige, success is never a cause for celebration. Each acquisition, once in hand, is like a meal that quickly loses its appeal, leaving the duergar hungry for more. No matter how much wealth or power they gain, it 's never enough.
- Our Fight Is Never Done: As duergar acquire treasure and prestige, they need to become ever mightier to hold on to what they have. When the duergar wage war on other races, they demonstrate that the weak aren't fit to possess that which is meant for the strong. And to the duergar, no creatures are more unworthy of holding wealth than dwarves. When duergar have an opportunity to strike at dwarves, especially in their strongholds, they fight with utmost viciousness and cunning, matching the value of the spoils to be gained with the intensity of their onslaught.
- Our Resolve Is Never Shaken: Any show of weakness is a mortal sin among the duergar, and that stricture extends to personal conduct as well as to the workings of a duergar clan. Displays of happiness, contentedness, and trust are forbidden. The duergar are bound together in a rigid society, but it is a marriage of necessity rather than choice. In the Underdark, they must cooperate to survive. Within their society, each individual fills a role assigned to them and must perform it to the best of their abilities. Duergar warriors epitomize the race's abandonment of emotion and individuality. In battle, they wear heavy armor and hateful, scowling masks that hide their identities. When assembled in ranks, the duergar move forward like army ants. They are an implacable, relentless foe, marching over the corpses of their fallen comrades to press the attack.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Religious Rites of the Jeh-Yazde Cult
Jeh-Yazde's followers stand at the forefront of the duergar's attacks on their most hated enemies. Inspired by her mythic deeds, her priests are especially eager to find and annihilate dwarf communities and mind flayer colonies. The priests of Jeh-Yazde maintain a training ground and armory inside each duergar stronghold. All duergar are required to learn the basic skills of combat, and the nobles are obliged to contribute weapons, armor, and followers to the stronghold's defensive force. The priests honor their deity by planning, equipping, and launching holy crusades against their enemies.Religious Rites of the Bazvadür Cult
Bazvadür's teachings stand in direct opposition to everything Zwakhasis represents. He is the Gilded Crafter's dark opposite, a shadow that seeks to rise up and consume its original creator. Duergar don't worship Bazvadür in any traditional way; their communities include no temples or formal services. They honor their deity by acquiring more power and wealth through any means possible. Priests of Bazvadür maintain the internal functions of duergar society but have no role that is expressly religious.History
In the Era of the Dawn, the Gilded Crafter Zwakhasis created first dwarves as a present for his newborn son, the Fortune's Dispatch Qingu. He made six statues, two from the ores of the foothills, two from the ores of the windswept peaks, and two from the heart of the mountain itself. These became the hill dwarves, the mountain dwarves, and the deep dwarves. And each became a clan unto themselves; one of the Nine Lineages and each settled one of the Nine Sacred Mountains. And they were called Alulim, Alalngar, Duag-gur, Dumuzid, Kullassina, Kalumum, Melemkish, Tizqar, and Ubara.
Over the course of the War of the Dawn, the Nine Mountains were destroyed and turned to rubble, their foundations becoming the great mountain ranges that still dominate Holos today. Bereft of their homelands, the Nine Lineages established new kingdoms and settlements in the vales and foothills of the original mountain ranges. It is said that the Alalgar settled in Varangia; the Dumuzid in the Shanindar; the Kullassina in the Basceron; the Melemkish in the Mazabar Highlands; the Tizqar in Decca; and the Kalumum and Ubara in Teroa. Yet two Lines, the Alulim and Duag-gur, dug deeper; building new strongholds in the subterranean frontier known as the Underdark.
During the Mithril Era, the Duag-gur settled a system of passageways and labyrinthine channels meant to lock away the Dread Dragoness Valdra for eternity. Many of the most foul and terrifying creatures in the Multiverse that the gods of the Heavenly Council had encountered interfering with the Material Plane were also locked away within the deep caverns of the Underdark. One of those races was the illithid, or mind flayers. Descended from a race of conqueroring warlords in the Astral Plane, the illithid now lived in ruined colonies throughout the multiverse, praying to Great Old Ones such as Kahré and plotting their return to dominance.
The dwarves that encountered the illithid were quickly overwhelmed by their superior technology and psychic powers. The mind flayers enslaved the dwarves and used their hardiness and industrial nature to rebuild an alien civilization beneath the gaze of gods and mortals. These dwarves were twisted and corrupted by the strange magic and psychic abilities of the mind flayers until they bore the tell-tale dark marks of a mortal race that had lingered too long within the shadows of the Underdark.
Yet, when all hope seemed lost, a beautiful figure appeared to two lowly slaves. She was wreathed in fire and promised them liberation, wealth, and most importantly revenge against the illithids. In exchange, the dwarves agreed to renounce their maker, Zwakhasis, whom had watched and wept for his children as they toiled in darkness. Upon doing so, the strange figure assisted them in throwing off their captor's shackles and burning the strange and terrible kingdom they had toiled so long to build. The two dwarves led their people deeper into the inescapable Underdark and began to build their own slaving civilization. They called themselves the duergar, and their leaders, Bazvadür and Jeh-Yazde came to be revered as demigods in the service of the Hidden Flame, the Lady of the Mist, and the Kiss of Lies—Rheseldar.
Historical Figures
The duergar revere two of their kind above all others, Bazvadür and Jeh-Yazde. Though both of these figures were once mortals and sold their souls to serve another deity, Rheseldar, few temples can be found to the Kiss of Lies while dozens exist in each stronghold to the Grim One and the Flayed Mistress.
Jeh-Yazde
According to legend, Jeh was the wife of Bazvadür. When Bazvadür made a pact with Rheseldar, the illithid learned of this and to dissuade the Grim One from acting, they consumed Jeh's brain as well as leaving her flayed body and loose skin outside the cell of Bazvadür. Yet Rheseldar imparted her dark magic upon the corpse of Jeh and the Flayed Mistress stood, embraced her husband, and was born again. The process allowed her to steal the power of psionics from the mind flayers and gifted it to her people. Her command of it was so great that she dominated a mind flayer colony and turned the illithids into her slaves.Bazvadür
Also known as the Grim One, Bazvadür was a mighty duergar warrior who liberated his people from the illithids. Bazvadür entered into a pact with Rheseldar to free his people and for his insubordination, the illithids killed and consumed the mind of his wife, Jeh. But to show her commitment to Bazvadür and the duergar people, Rheseldar brought Jeh back from the dead, birthing the Flayed Mistress, Jeh-Yazde. Bazvadür then led Jeh-Yazde and his people to rise up against the illithids, even slaying an Elder Brain with only a pair of cast off shackles.Common Myths and Legends
Apart from their devotion to Rheseldar, the patron of Bazvadür and Jeh-Yazde, duergar are known to worship three other members of the Unspoken Six. Duergar scouts and rangers often follow either Valdra, who's presence is ever-felt in the endless caverns of the Underdark, or Ókan, who they believe protects them with his darkness. Those duergar that reside in the Shadowfell in particular venerate the Beast In Shadow, for just as the Underdark is the domain of Valdra, so too is the Shadowfell to Ókan.
Duergar leaders often also call to Deverin, the Hungering Secret. Some among the duergar even believe that their unshaking desire for more wealth and power and material possessions is the work of Deverin. However, rather than thinking of this eternal wanting as a curse, duergar see it as the work of a kind god trying to move them towards a divine goal.
All duergar loath the Great Old Ones, particularly Sharun-sharek and Kahré, whom they equate with being the power behind the illithid. Any worshippers or warlocks of great old ones encountered by duergar are always brought in to be tortured, for many duergar remain paranoid that the illithid could return and subjugate them as they once did.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
To the duergar, those dwarves whom have remained on the surface are merely extensions of Zwakhasis, a god that they believe abandoned them in the horrors of the Underdark. For this reason, duergar are particularly vicious and cruel when it comes to attacking dwarven strongholds or miners, seizing any opportunity to defile the temples or children of the Gilded Crafter.
Duergar have no love for the drow either, considering them to be more exiles than true denizens of the Underdark. They do occasionally work with svirfneblin, though they just as often end up enslaving them to work as engineers and laborers.
For generations, duergar relied on humanoid captives to perform unskilled labor in their workshops. Only the lowest, most miserable duergar would consent to do grunt work that requires no artifice or skill.
In recent decades, however, the duergar have begun to move away from the practice of slavery, though not out of any sort of moral revelation. Some of them have discovered that mechanical servitors powered by psionic energy are more durable and more efficient than slaves.
Comments