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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 8687943" data-attributes="member: 467">One of things that makes dwarves really interesting in their Tolkien roots is that they are an exiled and wandering people. Like elves, their Golden Age is long behind them, but unlike elves they do not still hold their own lands. Dwarves work for others to survive, and suffer all the indignities associated with that. It is why the hold on to their own culture -- their language, their names, their family structures -- so tightly. it is all they have left. Their loyalty to their friends and their reticence to make those friends come from the same deep well of internalized loss and sorrow.If the dwarves of your world don't have that in their cultural background, you are stuck trying to figure out what to do with them, which usually emerged from some stereotypes about conservative blue collar Scotsmen.In general, when I don't crib from Tolkien, I am inclined to hew much closer to their Norse mythic origins and make them Others. They aren't just short people. they aren't mortals, in the way we think of that. They are beings deeply tied to the Earth. I fall back on an origin myth I made up a long time ago and adapt it to a new setting: all the dwarves that have ever existed and will ever existed were all created at once by their god, and were woken by him (they all present as male but don't actually reproduce so aren't actually sexed) to work in his great forges and workshops. That god and the Goblin king went to war and both were killed. Unlike the fecund goblins, though, the dwarves have just continued to diminish over time. They are a people on the way to extinction and they know it, but there is nothing to do but fight and work until the day comes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 8687943, member: 467"] One of things that makes dwarves really interesting in their Tolkien roots is that they are an exiled and wandering people. Like elves, their Golden Age is long behind them, but unlike elves they do not still hold their own lands. Dwarves work for others to survive, and suffer all the indignities associated with that. It is why the hold on to their own culture -- their language, their names, their family structures -- so tightly. it is all they have left. Their loyalty to their friends and their reticence to make those friends come from the same deep well of internalized loss and sorrow. If the dwarves of your world don't have that in their cultural background, you are stuck trying to figure out what to do with them, which usually emerged from some stereotypes about conservative blue collar Scotsmen. In general, when I don't crib from Tolkien, I am inclined to hew much closer to their Norse mythic origins and make them Others. They aren't just short people. they aren't mortals, in the way we think of that. They are beings deeply tied to the Earth. I fall back on an origin myth I made up a long time ago and adapt it to a new setting: all the dwarves that have ever existed and will ever existed were all created at once by their god, and were woken by him (they all present as male but don't actually reproduce so aren't actually sexed) to work in his great forges and workshops. That god and the Goblin king went to war and both were killed. Unlike the fecund goblins, though, the dwarves have just continued to diminish over time. They are a people on the way to extinction and they know it, but there is nothing to do but fight and work until the day comes. [/QUOTE]

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