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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 352908" data-attributes="member: 2785">Wars are often fought over resources. Iraq invaded Kuwait to gain control of oil. The US protects Middle Eastern resources for the same reason. What resource do both dwarves and humans value? Metal. The availability  of steel weapons, armor and other devices are one thing that enabled ancient Europeans to conquer large portions of the world in a relatively short time frame. Technology and war go hand in hand. Perhaps a human region sits on lands rich in mineral resources that the dwarves covet, so they have claimed "the right to retake their ancestral home" to possess it. Perhaps the humans envy the dwarves their metals and the resulting technology, so they have decided to take it out of fear and greed. After all, if they didn't attack now, the dwarves were bound to do so later. Pick a region or several regions of your world as trouble spots that are fought over, then detail what resources the owner of the land would control. Often, there are several cascading factors that result in war. Resources is a big one, and so is religion. Religion is often used as an excuse to attack, such as during the Crusades. Perhaps humans use magic (learned from the elves) in their daily lives, or it is an accepted part of life, while dwarves see arcane magic as heretic and evil because it does not originate from worship of a higher power. Thus, the dwarves now have two reasons to war - securing vital resources for the future, and expunging heretical magics from their world. Or maybe they are secretly indifferent to magic, but use it as an excuse to justify their expansionism. Alternately, perhaps humans view the dwarven diety suspiciously because they don't fully understand it. Since dwarves are dirty and live in the earth like maggots, and their god encourages this, maybe dwarves are evil. They are all shrewd, lustful, and greedy, just like their god, and their greed will one day threaten the humans' sovereignty. Better, then, to wage war in the name of Allmighty [INSERT DIETY HERE] to cleanse the world of the dwarven threat (and, incidentally, to pick up large tracts of arable land that can generate taxes from new landlords).War is easy to justify. It's peace that's hard to maintain.</blockquote>

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