D&D 5E Dwarves Could Use A Rethink

[Henadic Theologian]

It's the beards. We just have to normalize bearded female dwarfs.

Kaldheim had my favourite female Dwarf art.

Anyways instead of leaning into Norse mythology so much, go Greek, the Kabeiroi were the Dwarf sons of Hephaestus (some say Zeus as Father instead), although they lean abit more towards Azor perhaps then regular Dwarves. I think Hephaestus was one of inspirations for Moradin, the head of the Dwarven Pantheon. Actually like was the inspiration partly for several Dwarven Gods I think.

Theros should have had Dwarves (and Angels, Werewolves, and Vampires based on mythology/theology).

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Gods I despise that author, but a few of his ideas have some merit.

He's definitely milking that Peter Jackson cash cow formula for all its worth, but I can't fault the hustle. His writing is fairly good, although after reading one series you've essentially read them all.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I quite like how Rick Riordan does Dwarves in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. They're still skilled crafters that live underground and often have beards, but they keep a few cool bits and pieces from Norse Mythology, like them evolving from maggots, living in a world that is completely underground, gradually turning to stone in sunlight, and having lots of dwarves descended from Freya, and thus being a bit taller and more attractive than the typical dwarf. They also have this awesome (and a bit annoying) cultural lore about them always naming anything they create and asking all of its "great deeds" before they use it (like a dwarf asking the name of a stool in a bar before they sit on it, and the bartender telling them that it's named Heavy-Lifter that was the stool that Thor sat upon when he beat the record amount of flagons of dwarven mead that was consumed in one sitting, or something similar to that).

Some good stuff here, although the naming/deeds thing drifts into the silly.

 

[Don Durito]

A cool little thing you could do with Dwarves is have them turn to stone when they die. I imagine old dwarves, nearing death start to stiffen up naturally, so more then worrying about last words, they worry about their death pose, and the message they will thereby send to their descendants. Adventurers exploring old Dwarf ruins might think they see the statue of the king looking down at them, but it's no statue.

I'm imagining that groups of dead Dwarves of a generation are perhaps placed in a circle where they can be with their old friends and compatriots forever, and then with the passage of time they weather and erode, so humans come along and wonder what the significance of standing stones should be. (Although actually this bit sounds more like gnomes).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A cool little thing you could do with Dwarves is have them turn to stone when they die. I imagine old dwarves, nearing deaf start to stiffen up naturally, so more then worrying about last words, they worry about their death pose, and the message they will thereby send to their descendants. Adventurers exploring old Dwarf ruins might think they see the statue of the king looking down at them, but it's no statue.

I'm imagining that groups of dead Dwarves of a generation are perhaps placed in a circle where they be with their old friends and compatriots for ever, and then with the passage of time they weather and erode, so humans come along and wonder what the significance of standing stones should be. (Although actually this bit sounds more like gnomes).

That is cool as hell.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

He's definitely milking that Peter Jackson cash cow formula for all its worth, but I can't fault the hustle. His writing is fairly good, although after reading one series you've essentially read them all.

Yeah, he is also very disrespectful of Neo-Pagan faiths, and of the mythical figures he is cashing in on, not to mention the ancient peoples who worshipped the old gods.

For details, so as not to derail the thread; Not grandma friendly language.

I also just find stuff like making Thor a slovenly idiot a bit much, and indicative of someone who doesn’t have any respect for the mythology he is using to get rich.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm going to have to vehemently disagree with your hatred of Rick Riordan (I can understand hating J.K. Rowling, but not Rick Riordan), but I do agree with your agreement on his dwarves being interesting.

See my last post for why I detest the man.

 

[Chaosmancer]

A cool little thing you could do with Dwarves is have them turn to stone when they die. I imagine old dwarves, nearing deaf start to stiffen up naturally, so more then worrying about last words, they worry about their death pose, and the message they will thereby send to their descendants. Adventurers exploring old Dwarf ruins might think they see the statue of the king looking down at them, but it's no statue.

I'm imagining that groups of dead Dwarves of a generation are perhaps placed in a circle where they be with their old friends and compatriots for ever, and then with the passage of time they weather and erode, so humans come along and wonder what the significance of standing stones should be. (Although actually this bit sounds more like gnomes).

This is one of the things I would love to do with dwarves. That and them being crafted by their parents.

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When I went to rewrite some dwarven stuff for my setting, I started pretty simple. I looked to the gods, and to what the stereotypes might mean.


So, I ended up with Moradin and Berronar. Moradin crafting the First Born dwarves to attract the beautiful and mercurial goddess, and her marrying him and adopting the "children". All other Dwarven gods/goddesses were not actually deities, but saints. I tried to take a very Roman Catholic type of feel, giving them long lists of saints for various deeds. I even took some saints of sins, who had reached "divinity" but for foul purposes. Like Abbathor.

This had a pretty subtle effect though, in that dwarves would often reference the Saints instead of the Gods.

I then followed that up by deciding that Dwarves didn't have "mountain homes" they have a single Mountain home. The City of Harth was the birthplace of the dwarves and they carved the mountain out so that all dwarves could live in it. I had them displaced once by the Goblins (who are terrifying in my world) but in general, it wasn't a huge change... except.

I got to thinking about the stereotypes. What is the stereotypically dwarf? A blacksmith or miner who his also a warrior, male, and likes to get drunk. Well, I made the getting drunk just a by-product of fetid mountain cave water, and the blacksmithing would clearly be a sacred thing, with all the dwarves making items to give to Moradin, which were kept in a single massive vault when they were no longered owned by the family, or someone wanted to donate them. But what about the warrior thing?

So, I decided that the dwarves, due to have so many threats surrounding their homes (goblins, orcs, also didn't trust humans or elves, and have underdark monsters) required a 10 year military service from all men. And the men would patrol the borders, and do the fighting.

Which got me thinking... what about the women? What do they do with a bunch of drunken warriors on their days off? That's when a bit of inspiration struck. The women stayed home and enforced the laws. I came up with the "bellringers" who were patrols of women cops who had heavy batons for dealing with rowdy soldiers. The judges where usually women. I first thought about them staying home because of pregnancy, but then I started expanding it a bit too. Because the Dwarves NEVER wanted to abandon Harth again. So the dwarven women were the last line of defense for their sacred homes, and they knew it. So they trained three times harder and were far more fearsome warriors than the men.

Male dwarves might fight for glory. If a female dwarf is fighting it is for the survival of her people, and she isn't going to fight fair or hold back. Or she is bludgeoning a male dwarf who started a drunken brawl in the city, and is dragging them to the courts to get sobered up and punished.


I never really finished building the culture out. I had various clans who held various positions, a council of three who advised the rules, with the "King" was the male general of the armies, while the "Queen" was the Supreme Judge, and the two were basically never married because "King and Queen" was just the best way humans could translate their real positions and authority. It was a fun little bit.


Again though, dying and turning to stone and being born of stone are some great concepts to help make dwarves just a bit cooler.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Some good stuff here, although the naming/deeds thing drifts into the silly.

Definitely. But that's part of what makes it enticing to me. It makes dwarves significantly different culturally from humans, which IMHO is a boon to the feature.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

A cool little thing you could do with Dwarves is have them turn to stone when they die. I imagine old dwarves, nearing deaf start to stiffen up naturally, so more then worrying about last words, they worry about their death pose, and the message they will thereby send to their descendants. Adventurers exploring old Dwarf ruins might think they see the statue of the king looking down at them, but it's no statue.

I'm imagining that groups of dead Dwarves of a generation are perhaps placed in a circle where they be with their old friends and compatriots for ever, and then with the passage of time they weather and erode, so humans come along and wonder what the significance of standing stones should be. (Although actually this bit sounds more like gnomes).

There's actually something fairly similar to this in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon). In the Dwarven Culture of Alagaësia believes that a dwarf's spirit can't move on to the afterlife (which is joining their ancestors in the earth) unless their stony coffin is completely entombed in stone. They even have a process of turning mud into stone in order to seal the cracks and seams of the coffins and tombs to allow for this transition into the afterlife.