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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 1324325" data-attributes="member: 7177">I've expanded on the dwarves a bit. Here's the new writeup:    Dwarves who live in human cities tend to congregate in their own neighborhoods - ghettos that are often walled from the outside world, where non-dwarves are seen with suspicion and all wealth is carefully hidden from outsiders. These areas have often hidden traps and defenses - a prudent measure, since there are infrequent pogroms against the dwarves when the human majority is looking for some kind of scape-goat.    These dwarven enclaves are often ruled a so-called "Hidden King", a dwarf whose actual name is never revealed to non-dwaves. Sometimes they are actual exiled nobles from the dwarven realms, but members of old, established families who have lived in the same city for centuries are more common. In the best case, these dwarves are elder statesmen, judges, and respected advisors to their communities. In the worst case they are nothing more than crime lords who extort their fellow dwarves and ruthlessly crush all dissent. However, the ability of a single ruler to act quickly during times of crisis has proven very useful during pogroms, and thus most dwarves support the system. Hidden Kings are most common in the following regions: Atalus, Desert of Thunder, Flannish Cities, Hobgoblin Dominions, Lake of Dreams, Parginian Rim, and Thenares. In all these regions, dwarves have faced persecution in the past, and might again do so in the future. Hidden Kings also exist in the Eternal Storm and Great Southern Chaos, since the political situation there is too unstable to allow dwarves to prosper without any firm leadership. Elsewhere, dwarven expatriate communities are usually ruled by a Council of Elders, which thanks to the reduced threat from their non-dwarven neighbors can afford to take more time when deciding things.    Another important aspect of expatriate dwarves is from which dwarven realm they can trace their ancestry. Dwarves from Gol Algor tend to me more outgoing and freely mingle with gnomes - and in some cases, even humans who appreciate their skills. Dwarves from Gol Grungor tend to be either staunchly conservative, suspicious of changes and outsiders and usually isolationist from the rest of the city, or (in the case of many younger dwarves who were born and grew up in human cities) openly rebellious and contemptous of dwarven traditions. Dwarves from Gol Murak tend to be subdued but hard-working, and usually use a large portion of their income to support the war effort of their distant home.    Usually, the Hidden King is a member of the cultural group whose members represent the majority of dwarves in the city, and often dwarves from a different origin are seen as second class members of the dwarven community. However, in regions where dwarves from two different kingdoms are represented in roughly equal numbers - such as the Hobgoblin Dominions, League of Armach, and Lake of Dreams regions, there might be two (or more!) Hidden Kings in a single city, with their followers locked in vicious fights for dominance.Is that better? I'll try to do something similar for the other races, too...Interesting idea. I'll see what I can make of them...Well, they are definietly related, but I won't make them the same species. To my mind, anything that has different attribute bonuses is a member of a different species - these bonuses represent some rather big differences.Of course, I could just give dwarves and gnomes the same game stats and just call them differently. But one of my design goals was to deconstruct the D&D rules and construct a world around them that really hangs together, so dwarves and gnomes have to be fairly distinct from each other...</blockquote>

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