The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ooc]In most fantasy worlds Dwarves are flavoured as stocky subterranean Vikings.  In this setting, that would be redundant (as well as cliched, of course).  Thus I've chosen to emphasize the creepier side of mythological Dwarf-kind.  These are not your usual stalwart, brave, honour- obsessed, ancestor-worshiping axe-wielders.  These are ugly-as-sin troglodytes with a knack for technology and insatiable greed.

Those familiar with the Dune universe, picture the Tleilaxu - these Dwarfs are broadly similar in appearance and attitude, though without the religious element.

As with Trollbloods, Dvergar are a playable race, so if anyone's character dies, feel free to roll one up.[/ooc]

Dvergar

The Dvergar, or Dwarfs, are a race of maggots in humanoid form born out of the putrid flesh of Ymir, the primordial giant from whose cadaverous hulk the world was made.  Dwelling within the fossilized bowels of Ymir – the endless tunnel-realm of Svartálfheim – the Dvergar are a notoriously avaricious and appetitive people: they are the physical manifestations of hunger, be it for knowledge, flesh, or gold.  Miners and smiths of exceptional ability, Dwarfs are driven by an insatiable need to dig deeper, to understand more thoroughly, to expand and consume.  They have constructed many devices of wondrous power, including mechanical creatures, strange weapons that hurl fire, blades of surpassing strength and keenness, and all manner of other wondrous machines.  Their cities are mad, sprawling labyrinths of gigantic gears and rune-graven stone.

Physically, Dvergar are short, stocky creatures with pallid, sallow flesh frequently stained with soot or dirt.  Many elder Dwarfs are corpulent, relying on mechanical beasts to convey them from place to place; their most elite warriors sometimes ride mechanical steeds into battle. By and large, however, they prefer to avoid physical combat, preferring to rely on their skill with magic. All are exceptionally hairy, with enormous beards, and also exceptionally ugly (by human standards), with small, black eyes, sharp little teeth, and squashed, unpleasant features.

With but a few rare females, Dwarfs frequently seek out mortal women as consorts; children sired from such unions are pure Dwarf – there is no such thing as a "Half-Dwarf."  Some human settlements have been known to trade their women for weapons and other devices of Dwarf make, though the Dvergar guard their greatest secrets with care, refusing to relinquish their more powerful treasures not out of any altruistic motive but from sheer jealousy.  Becoming a Dwarf-bride is often presented as an honour, but in truth most women greatly fear such a fate – the Dvergar are infamously depraved, and their lust unquenchable.

Dvergar are rarely seen in Midgard itself, and maintain no permanent settlements there.  Trade with humans is conducted at those rare places where Svartálfheim borders Midgard, the chthonic orifices of the earth.

Dvergar Characters:

+2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, –4 Charisma: Dvergar are hearty and crafty, but also stubborn and belligerent.

Medium: Dvergar are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Slow and Steady: Dvergar have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.

Darkvision: Dvergar can see in the dark up to 120 feet.

Greed: Dwarfs receive a +2 racial bonus on Appraise skill checks made to determine the price of nonmagical goods that contain precious metals or gemstones.

Hardy: Dvergar receive a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities.

Craftsman: Dwarf are known for their superior craftsmanship when it comes to metal and stone works. Dwarfs with this racial trait receive a +2 racial bonus on all Craft or Profession checks that create objects from metal or stone.

Stability: Dvergar receive a +4 racial bonus to their CMD against bull rush or trip attempts while on solid ground.

Stonecunning: Dwarfs receive a +2 bonus on Perception checks to potentially notice unusual stonework, such as traps and hidden doors located in stone walls or floors. They receive a check to notice such features whenever they pass within 10 feet of them, whether or not they are actively looking.

Light Sensitivity: Dvergar are dazzled as long as they remain in an area of bright light.

Languages: Dwarfs begin play speaking Dvergar and Northspeech.

Classes: Dvergar have access to the Alchemist and Artificer classes.  It is rare for their kind to be Clerics, as they honour no Gods, though they certainly acknowledge the existence of the Æsir.

Weapon Familiarity: Dwarfs treat crossbows and any weapon with the world "Dwarf" in its name as a martial rather than exotic weapon.

The trading process seems vaguely familiar from some myth- it's a good bit of background. I think your Dwarves are reminiscent of Grimms fairy tales (!) I like the background and it offers a lot of wealth for roleplaying and strategic background--the dwarves represent an ally against the Trolls that no one really wants but who everyone really needs.

QuoteMany elder Dwarfs are corpulent, relying on scuttling mechanical palanquins for mobility. 

I like that as well. In one of my game settings I had dwarves ride giant Rats around their tunnels.

The bit about the palanquins is pretty shamelessly stolen from Morrowind, but it's such a good image that I can't pass it up.

EDIT: With regards to trade and women, there's one myth about one of Thor's daughters being betrothed to a Dwarf, much to Thor's disgust.

I don't like the clockwork machine aspect personally, it grates against the low-tech feel of the setting. Other than that it's a good take on dwarves.

I agree partly with Ghostman - the rest of the setting has less in the way of weird tech and while the dvergar would be a perfect match for CE they seem (somewhat) incongruous and anachronistic in Fimbulvinter.
This might be entirely dependent on how you frame and present them though. The mechanical palanquins might fit in well enough, but overt clockwork machinery and lightning projectors and what have you might be a bit too much.
So the question is really what level of technology is the best fit for a Vikingpunk (tm) setting. In the myths they'd mostly do really strange magical artifacts like a copying ring or a folding ship. 

Maybe if he presents them as steel tripods rather than mechanical palanquins- that's how I imagined them... tripods powered by oils that roll, leaving slicks of sick-inducing pollution, rather than skitter...sort of like dwarves riding on vaccum cleaners.

It also gives another reason why women won't want to marry dwarves. The dwarves are hardy enough to endure the oil and pollution of their mined tunnels, the dwarf-wives sicken and die due to strange skin diseases and lack of sun. I think this would still be keeping with the Scandinavian theme.

Quote from: Light Dragon
dwarves riding on vaccum cleaners.

Boom! Yes.

I'm actually going to agree with Ghostman and SC in that I don't like the dwarves. I'd love them for CE; they'd fit perfectly, and they're a very unique and interesting take on dwarves, but it breaks the mold too much for me if they're riding around on clockwork constructions. I'm willing to divorce the notion of stereotypical dwarves for a norse setting like this, but they seem a bit misplaced. It's like they burrowed in from CE and decided to hang out for a while in Fimbulvinter. However, you do have a knack for combining gruesome and clockwork themes into cohesive setting material, so I'm more willing to accept them on that premise alone. I'd have to get more of a feel for Fimbulvinter before I can truly condemn them to the depths of CE.

I'm with Weave/Ghostman/SC on this one; I'd add to that but Weave echoed my thoughts exactly.

If there is a session before next weekend, I'm going to be out of town and will miss it.

Hmm, a stronger reaction than I'd expected to the gear-work of the Dwarfs.  The idea was to make them very wondrous/alien - deliberately incongruous, to an extent.  The clockwork would have a feel similar to stuff like the Golden Army in Hellboy II or the Dwemer of Skyrim.

I'm taking some of my cues from myths like this one, where the Dvergar use bellows and forge to make a golden boar:

Quote from: Gullinbursti...and it was a boar, with mane and bristles of gold. ... Then Brokkr brought forward his gifts: ... to Freyr he gave the boar, saying that it could run through air and water better than any horse, and it could never become so dark with night or gloom of the Murky Regions that there should not be sufficient light where he went, such was the glow from its mane and bristles

Big metal animal... it's so close to a mechanical construct already that I figured it wouldn't be a big leap.

That said the Dwarf-tech could be scaled back considerably.

Would people be more amenable to gears and the like on a grander scale as opposed to a "personal" one, which is perhaps more CEish?  I feel like blunderbusses and perhaps intricate siege-engines would still be OK.

More opinions are welcome.

EDIT: How I want the Dvergar to feel - a list of adjectives: creepy, grotesque, mysterious, crafty, insatiable, strange, inhuman, mythic, skilful, base, slightly mad, insular, jealous, greedy, learned.

I don't think guns, even blunderbusses, have any place in the setting. It's not Battle for Wesnoth :D.

What people may have been concerned about is that you made it seem like a mechanical spider walking around-like in Wild Wild West, but greatly reduced.

Alright so I toned them down a little bit but without doing away with the "Dwarfs are mechanical geniuses" idea.  I've decided Dwarfs like crossbows.  Still undecided on whether any gunpowder weapons might wreck the tone completely, keeping in mind that Dvergar are a pretty rare sight in Midgard.

I think the trick here is to keep the Dwarfs strange and non-cliched (i.e. not tiny Vikings - which in the myths themselves, they're really not) without ruining the overall tone.

I should emphasize that Dwarf stuff is *not* common, and mortals almost never go to Svartalfheim.  Finding some Dwarven gizmo would be a very rare occurrence.  Perhaps if I keep the machines very "mythic" in feel, as opposed to "sciencey"??

EDIT: For any who haven't seen Hellboy II, this is the type of clockwork I envision the Dwarfs as having access to.  To me that still feels sufficiently mythic without degenerating into camp, or into SF.  I can see avoiding full-out "clockwork bionics" and the like to keep them from feeling like something literally out of CE.  The "Dvergar are maggots" thing isn't my innovation, incidentally, it's from the myth itself.

>>"Dvergar are maggots" thing isn't my innovation, incidentally, it's from the myth itself.

Well they were born under and they do live under the world tree :D

Along with the fire trolls... are those involved in your take on this mythology?

There are Fire Giants, yes.  Muspelheim and Niflhiem exist, along with the other Nine Worlds - in my version that's Asgard, Midgard, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Hel, Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Nilfheim, and Muspellheim.

There's some confusion in the myths and legends about whether trolls and giants are exactly identical or subtly different.  In this world Trolls are basically lesser Jotnar.  Similarly there's confusion as to whether Dark Elves and Dwarfs are the same; in this world they're not.  Dark Elves (Dökkálfar) live in the caverns of Midgard.

Where did you find the bit about the dwarfs being created under the world tree?  The version I have has them being created like this: "The dwarfs had taken shape first and acquired life in the flesh of Ymir and were then maggots, but by decision of the gods they became conscious with intelligence and had the shape of men though they live in the earth and in rocks."

Hmm, idea: do away with clockwork entirely. Instead, have their constructs be seamless homogenuous creatures. Emphasize the ineffable about their creations and make e.g. the golder boar more similar to the portrayal of a clay golem in jewish myth or the watercraeft of the Vodyanoi in you-know-what: a mysteriously self-sustained liquid beast of molten gold in the shape of a boar.

Another, more ecletic idea: make the dwarven technology centered on biopunk. They would be the guys brewing sleipnirs and organic hermophroditic rings of moaning gold giving continuous painful birth to themself. Or elegant sinew-ships woven from the supple bodies of virgins.