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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9015384" data-attributes="member: 6790260">They tend to show up more in video games than in film or TV. Most MMOs and CRPGs have some flavor of "dwarf," though that word can vary rather a lot in what it actually means. E.g.:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Warcraft setting, Azeroth, is pretty stereotypical Pseudo-medieval Faux-European Tolkienesque Fantasy Schizotech, so its dwarves are pretty stereotypical as well, only adding in a light touch of industrialization or machinery. Playable, but not very popular AIUI.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elder Scrolls "dwarves" are, or rather were, a subspecies of elf, and went effectively extinct after they all collectively disappeared centuries ago. This means they are not playable in any TES game, and wouldn't necessarily be distinct from other elves even if they were playable.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">FFXIV "dwarves" are a parallel world alternate culture for the "main" world's halfling-equivalents, which are called "lalafell" in the main world. This means they're technically playable aesthetically, but not narratively (the PC cannot be "a dwarf" culturally.) Lalafell are middle of the road in terms of popularity.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Guild Wars 2 dwarves are an ancient race that turned its few survivors into living stone in order to survive an ancient apocalypse. Not playable, but pretty clearly stereotypical other than the whole "actually made of stone now" bit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragon Age has mostly classic, stereotypical dwarves, albeit with a few twists, who are fully playable. By far the least popular of the DA:O options for players though (Bioware has stated it's something like 80% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarves. But that might be because of issues other than just race, e.g. you can't be a dwarf mage, and humans can become king or queen of Ferelden.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Obviously EverQuest included playable (and very stereotypical) dwarves.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Divinity: Original Sin 2 has dwarves, but they're of a kind similar to FFXIV but reversed: very non-stereotypical culture, but all the physical parts you'd expect. Many of them are sailors, for example, and they are associated more with trade than with smithing per se.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Warhammer, at least the fantasy one. I don't know much about Warhammer Fantasy to say more, but what I've seen paints its dwarves as exceptionally stereotypical.</li> </ul>There are probably games I'm overlooking, but that's a solid spread.And what I'd say is...dwarves are not so much disappearing. They still get used in new games (e.g. Age of Wonders 4 just came out and includes them.) But what is happening is, they aren't considered mandatory anymore. Playable elves, and fairly stereotypical ones at that, are still borderline mandatory for fantasy stuff—and where there are elves there will very likely be half-elves. Dwarves proper are no longer mandatory, but including them in some form is practically guaranteed eventually (but that "in some form" can vary wildly.) Halflings are seen as fully optional but nice for nostalgia points if you can make it work.And other races have risen in prominence as a result. Orcs or half-orcs are a long-running mainstay, especially because of World of Warcraft. Dragon-people (or more loosely reptilian people) have been a fantasy-fiction thing for ages and a mythic-tale thing for as long as we've had myths, so that isn't a surprise. Tieflings go back to at least Merlin, and probably much further, and fairly drip with narrative hooks (an entire race/ancestry with a built-in "No, I am your father!" reveal.) Gnomes are kind of borderline "D&D only," as the only setting I can think of that has actual gnomes is Azeroth. You also have some other classics reinterpreted, like GW2 sylvari are basically plant elves with no past rather than ancient fading glory (if anything, it's humans that got the stereotypical elf culture, while the closest thing to a stereotypical human culture went to the charr.)Genasi are the interesting odd man out, in that they don't have any big media supporting them. I suspect if we got some they would get a boost. I wonder if the "character portrait" argument (the claim that races that look cooler when drawn attract more attention) is applicable here. There are also a few that come from outside D&D: lion-people are surprisingly common (sorry tabaxi, you're no ronso/hrothgar, charr, vah shir, nor even khajiit!), "ratkin" and variations thereof are fairly common, and of all things frog-people show up much more often than you would expect, though whether they are playable varies a lot.As fantasy grows beyond the limits of Tolkien's shadow, this is to be expected. Popular ideas will linger, but often get remixed, downplayed, or post-launch adapted to suit. New ideas will bubble up; some will stick (like orcs and dragonborn), some won't (like GW2 asura and their creepy teeth!) As the space fills with new notions, creators will treat these elements like colors in a palette: some of the time, you just don't need green, no matter how popular green may be, but orange is critical no matter how uncommon it is as a favorite color. (E.g., consider a sunset, or an autumn forest.)I don't think dwarves are going anywhere, not for at least my generation's lifetime. But beyond that, who knows? Reptilians were very popular in early fantasy and sci-fi but practically disappeared in the wake of Tolkien, only really made a comeback in the past 20-30 years. Gnomes, despite having sincere fans, have never really held the spotlight. Elves have been perennial since Tolkien reinvented them, but might they grow stale in a century? Who knows!</blockquote>

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