Races of Stone: Dwarven Agriculture

[Johnny Angel]

I've only gotten to skim this in the store, and one thing that I couldn't find any account of what I consider the most important thing they should have included. I never hear of dwarves eating fungus, which is the closest thing to vegetation you can grow underground. They are depicted on one page as eating something with drumsticks, but what kind of creatures are these? There is no mention of dwarven farming, yet dwarves are renowned for their love of ale. Where are they getting the barley to make that ale? What's more, the book depicts wooden shields, wooden doors, wooden-hafted weapons.

Near as I can tell, Dwarves are entirely dependant on trade with other races just to have something to eat. That's fine, of course. But it does make a big difference in how we read dwarves. For one thing, they cannot bow out of human affairs. Even if we suppose that most dwarves never venture out of their tunnels, their livlihoods are intimately tied up with the affairs of humans (because, in fact, who else in D&D actually operates farms?). If humans war against eachother, they need all the goods they can produce to wage those wars -- including the monies produced from dwarven mining. Those humans are not going to like the dwarves dealing with both sides, and dwarven societies can fall under internal strife over what side to support.

That's a sample of the kinds of issues that can arise from just the question of agriculture. It does not appear to be dealt with in the book, and it's the question about dwarves I think is most important to answer.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Near as I can tell, Dwarves are entirely dependant on trade with other races just to have something to eat. That's fine, of course. But it does make a big difference in how we read dwarves. For one thing, they cannot bow out of human affairs.

In The Hobbit, when the dwarves have taken the Lonely Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield is reminded that he cannot eat gold or stone. In Tolkein's world, the dwarves were indeed inextricably bound into the affairs of other races, and were the most frequent outsiders to pass through the Shire.

In my own campaign documents,

Covered in forested hills, swampland, and small pools, Tal Slathan was colonized by dwarves long ago, and, though they are gone, the memory of the silver and gemstones they mined from Tal Slathan’s hills remains. The old dwarf-hold was known as Marrowgate, but it’s location and the means to enter therein have been lost to time.

Men followed to Tal Slathan, and founded the village of Oakhill, overlooked by Caer Pavallan. They traded foodstuffs to the dwarves of Marrowgate, in exchange for precious stones and silver, worked and unworked, then transported these to the farther villages of Long Archer and Selby-by-the-Water. This relationship long endured, and Oakhill grew prosperous. Other small communities were founded upon Tal Slathan, including the Temple of the Silver Cat, where the worshipers of Baerbeth conducted rituals following the moon’s phases.

Then, one night in the dark of the moon, orcs from the Grey Hills sailed across Lake Elidyr in many skin boats. They raided Oakhill and besieged Caer Pavallan under the banner of the Blood-Drenched Fist. Though messengers flew across the lake to bring respite from the siege, aid came too late to save the castle. The orcish shaman, Grodd du Grumdash, summoned a great infernal shade that swept through the castle, unmanning those who guarded its walls. So Caer Pavallan fell, and those who would have come to Oakhill’s aid were captured and enslaved, or else driven from the shore.

It was in this time that the dwarves of Marrowgate vanished, though whether they were slain, or fled, or sealed themselves within their delving no man knows. What is known is that, through haplessly captured slave labor, the orcs sought to mine the riches of Tal Slathan for themselves. Yet, while they long endured, they were in the end brought to ruin by the Shadow of Grodd du Grumdash, which had lain dormant for many long years while the orcs mined and prospered.

Now, Oakhill lies in ruins, and Caer Pavallan stands over it like both a shadow, and a beacon for the lost riches of Marrowgate. Adventurers still come to Tal Slathan to seek their fortune, and indeed some of them find it. There are those who return over Lake Elidyr with pockets dripping silver, but others return with little to show, and others yet do not return at all.

and:

Although the dwarves lived in halls not far from the surface, Deepinghelm extended far beneath the Trollshank Mountains. Deepinghelm had thus long been divided into the Sunward Kingdom and the Kingdom of Evernight. Dwarves knew how to keep secrets, and the human and elvish villages that supplied life-giving foodstuffs to the Sunward Kingdom little knew that they were also feeding a host of dwarves locked in an uneasy peace with creatures living in the deep caves of the mountains.

RC

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

That's a sample of the kinds of issues that can arise from just the question of agriculture. It does not appear to be dealt with in the book, and it's the question about dwarves I think is most important to answer.

If you can find it, check out the Birthright supplement for the primary dwarven kingdom, Baruk-Azhik. It has a lot of data on dwarven dietary habits, etc.

Note that there's nothing stating that the dwarves can't, say, grow grain in mountain valleys and such. However, they're pretty self-sufficient underground, though they'll miss traded luxuries if they have to close the doors.

Brad

 

[Johnny Angel]

The idea that dwarves have an economy tied to that of humans since antiquity fits in well with my own campaign, in which the fact that coins dug up from ancient hordes are worth exactly as much as modern ones is explained by making all coinage dwarven in origin -- based on ancient exacting standards of purity and weight. In the real world, individual governments issue their own money and gradually degrade the mineral content of their coins, but in the world of the game this sort of behavior would start a war with the dwarves, who are very particular on the subject, and a scare among humans, who like the reassurance of dwarven stubborness in this matter. The gnomes have experimented with alternate coinage, and these gnomish coins with the holes in the middle show up now and then. The gnomes also once tried to introduce scrip, which created a war which enveloped all the major (that is, PC) humanoid races.

 

[Gez]

IMC, there are four main dwarven countries.

One, Barengar, is a land of rolling hills. The hill dwarves there can be autosufficient, they have underground cities and surface fortified towns. On the surface they practice agriculture and shepherding. Below, they make their travel roads and large cities.

Then you have two countries of mountain dwarves, the Rostfergs in the North and the Royres in the South. Although they hunt or herd some mountain animals, that's far from sufficient to feed them, so they have to live from their trade. Trades which include mining, smithing, gemcutting, tunnel-carving, engineering massive devices (like watermills, siege machines, and so on), and fighting. Mountain dwarf mercenaries are a common sight.

The last main country is one of gold dwarves. They are dangerously skillful merchants and diplomats. The richest of the dwarves, they do nearly nothing by themselves and are totally dependent on other races. Their biggest triumph was the creation of the Dwarven Confederacy, which unites all four kingdoms of dwarves in a single diplomatic and commercial entity, for all relations with other countries and races. This arrangement lets them live comfortably on the work of the other dwarves. Of course, they are not mere parasites -- given their skills at negociations and coordinations, they have bettered the lot of their mountain and hill fellows. They also have a strong tradition of wizardry, and have used magic to develop a fast network of strategic communications and transportations.

 

[Antoine]

If humans war against eachother, they need all the goods they can produce to wage those wars -- including the monies produced from dwarven mining. Those humans are not going to like the dwarves dealing with both sides, and dwarven societies can fall under internal strife over what side to support.

Business has an ages-long record of not choosing sides.

War is a great time for business, especially when dealing strategic goods such as ore or weapons in a D&D world. It's likely neither side can do without the dwarf merchants, who IMHO would gladly and lawfuly deal with two human countries at the same time.

Except, of course, if one of the two nations offers a huge bonus for exclusive transaction…

 

[Michelle Lyons]

It's discussed briefly in the Dwarven Economy section, as well as Dwarven Settlements. It's also alluded to somewhat in the section on equipment. Basically, Dwarves do just like any other culture has done throughout time -- they work with what they have. They rely on underground flora and fauna for their daily needs. They weave shirts from earthsilk (a particularly tough type of fungus that produces long threadlike filaments), and the "Day in the life" section talks about common meals, featuring root vegetables, brown bread (made from yeast and some other undisclosed type of grain or substance)fungus (mushrooms, cheese), meat from underground creatures (roasted mole), and beet sugar.

They do barter and trade for items with surface races, but it would be a poor dwarven community indeed that couldn't be self-sufficient if it had to. In short, it's there. You just have to do more than skim. Hope that helps.

 

[Storyteller01]

Suppose that dwarven communities are traeted much like the feudal communities of Europe?

Open land surrounding the castle (in this case, the mountain) was worked. During times of strife or war, the community moved into the castle walls for protection (after destroying what crops had not been put in storage. No point feeding the enemy...)

 

[Perun]

Although PH speaks only of dwarven underground lands, I always figured hill dwarves (the most common core dwarven subrace) lived close to the surface. Thus, they're able to do some above-surface farming, probably in the limited fashion, as they'd prefer enclosed valleys (possibly at higher latitudes).

So, I see them as growing some type of cold-resistant grain. They'd probably keep some kind of goat (seeing how they're naturally found in the moutainous regions). There's possibly some kind of underground, or semi-uderground animal (a la rothé of FR) -- if there are fiendish and celestial versions of practically all known animals, it only makes sence that there's be a breed or two of underground-dwelling ones...

Also, in some earlier products, dwarves were described as being in conflict with elves, over the dwarven deforestation of mountains -- they neeeded the wood to build supports for their mines.

Then there's fungi, molds, slimes, etc. Not neccessarily the monstrous or dangerous ones, but some that are at least semi-cultivated, and suitable for humanoid digestion. It can even be that these are used as a main ingredient for the dwarven ale. After all, it's allways been suggested that it's stronger than human ale

I always figured there were areas of uderdark filled with "forests" of fungi and mushrooms, much like the forests in the above-ground world. Perhaps even complete with "mushroomeants" or "fungeants" There is an abundance of life below the surface in D&D, and there has to be some way for the life there to support itself, that is, the food chains have to be complete, so there has to be some kind of plant life down there (even if fungi aren't technically plants, and I presume that, with all the life down there, plants simlar to fly-traps could be found).

In short, I believe that dwarven agriculture relies on both above- and below-ground farming. It would be too much of a stretch

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

...Perhaps even complete with "mushroomeants" or "fungeants"

They're called Myconids (from MM2)