On Dwarves... Part Three : Dwarves and Drinking

[Seraph]

I try to make the people who populate my world more influenced by regional culture than by race, but some things for my dwarves transcend borders.  However, I have a slippery slope into just making dwarves a universal culture.  Having a powerful nation where dwarves are in power doesn't exactly help this--it just makes my universal dwarven culture be tied to a geographic location.

[Tangential]

I try to make the people who populate my world more influenced by regional culture than by race, but some things for my dwarves transcend borders.  However, I have a slippery slope into just making dwarves a universal culture.  Having a powerful nation where dwarves are in power doesn't exactly help this--it just makes my universal dwarven culture be tied to a geographic location.

That largely speaks for me as well.

[Lmns Crn]

That's abother issue with dwarven drinking - what do they make the alcohol out of?

Fermented lichen. Or, they trade for it from surface-dwellers who can farm proper grains.

I've got two distinct dwarven nations going, and neither are notably concerned with alcohol. They make it, they drink it-- just not to such excess that you'd naturally associate the two.

Anyhow I view dwarves the same as every other classic fantasy race. They are the results of taking the core concepts of humanity and dividing it up among different species. Dwarves being a manifestation of human willpower, tradition, and loyalty. In that mindset I see them as holding to drink as a mixture of traditional dwarven culture, a show of their own personal fortitude, and as a way to bond with their clan mates.

I definitely agree; I've just chosen different traits to magnify in my dwarves, and ways to do so which don't involve booze. (Chalk me up as the one guy who just couldn't stand to leave the "dwarves are drinkers!" assumption to stand on its own, I guess. But hey, I've got them with beards reserved as a status symbol for the upper classes only, and one dwarven culture that lives aboveground. Maybe I'm a statistical outlier.)

[Seraph]

But hey, I've got them with beards reserved as a status symbol for the upper classes only

Hey, I've got that too!  It's not that the lower classes are forbidden from growing them at all, but they have to keep them short.  The culture uses metal rings as currency, rather than flat coins, and the upper classes thread them into their beards (and hair if they have it).  They often wear so much money hanging from their heads that they are prone to neck trouble.  For this reason, the lower classes often call the uppers "stiffnecks."

Also, since in this culture, wealth is displayed in the beard, cutpurses would more accurately called "cutbeards," but have been dubbed "Barbers."

[Ninja D!]

You may be the ONLY one.

[Seraph]

You may be the ONLY one.

Well, mine actually straddle the underground/aboveground border.  The City of Issachar is built into the side of Taran's Peak.  About half of the city is inside or under the mountain, and half is built up against or around it, but above ground.

[Tangential]

Having dwarves live above-ground, especially since the advent of D&D 4e is not that uncommon, methinks.

[Ninja D!]

D&D 4e is too recent to have a big impact on much, yet. I'm not really a fan of the setting, though. Dwarves were found aboveground in D&D before that, too.

[Tangential]

Oh, absolutely.

[Ninja D!]

I like the way that Dragon Age handled that. Also, merchants that mostly live on ther surface. That's another topic in itself, though.

[LordVreeg]

You may be the ONLY one.

Well, mine actually straddle the underground/aboveground border.  The City of Issachar is built into the side of Taran's Peak.  About half of the city is inside or under the mountain, and half is built up against or around it, but above ground.

Barstone and Axehold are similar in my world.  Maybe 20% aboveground, and 80% below ground...for the whole country

[Ninja D!]

Aboveground but built into the side of a mountain I can see. That's almost as good as underground.

I think we're derailed now, without a solid flow or actual change of topic. That's just fine, there really wasn't as much discussion on this topic as I would have expected. Maybe the next On Dwarves... will have to come much sooner than next year. I might do it during or after the dwarf contest I'm going to set up.