Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrgh! Mark!" data-source="post: 3007727" data-attributes="member: 14559">If I remember correctly, Sins of the Fathers by Destan was also another great dwarf-starring storyhour along with good old Wulf Ratbane. I can see why elves on covers sell D+D fantasy. Same reason why covers sell fantasy. Dwarves aren't pretty, Dwarves aren't nice, and hence, dwarves don't always win. Elves are pretty, godlike, and always win. Most people who read fantasy don't brain warping adventures Dying Earth style or even nihilistic character dramas Iron Dragon's Daughter style. People read fantasy to have a bit of fun. Now, thats all good. Personally I wouldn't mind hearing about the torment a dwarven character goes through as he's forced by one tradition to violate another or something. But most people want light entertainment, not really embracing stuff. Lets have a look at old Drizzt. While he's lost a fair bit, he hasn't lost enough that he can't come back to his safe place. Whatever he's lost he regains through some process of redemtion. His friends will never completely isolate him. If we have a look at Destan's dwarf, through no fault of his own he's taken from everything he's ever wanted without mercy. We don't know if he'll get it back.We know Drizzt will win eventually. We know eventually he'll either come back from his fall from grace or die heroically. A dwarf? unlikely. Novelists will have to really think about these characters because they don't fit the hero story so easily. Hence a good dwarf needs a better grade of writer to write with any facility. So it's true. Elves do sell covers. But people who prefer a more serious style of fantasy don't buy for pretty elves.Unless it's unclad, pretty elf-chicks with swords... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

Verification