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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 3567509" data-attributes="member: 93">This is one of the questions that led me to my concept of dwarves in my campaign world.  Years ago, the dwarves were much like "standard" dwarves - clan structure, etc., with a large empire.  They maintained this through conquest, including the use of slaves, particulalry goblinoid races (hobgoblins are goblins that underwent dwarven training/indoctrination - think of something like the barbarian portions of Rome's army, and better nutrition leads to larger size and strength).  Conquered areas brought food back to the dwarven "core" realms.Over the years, reliance on slaves for labor an military might had much the same result as in Rome - a certain level of decadence set in.  The Dwarves started to deal less in crafting and more in banking, making use of their immense wealth (though they are still the best at what they do - armor and weapons).They are also very conservative in terms of what they make - in my world, gunpowder is in use in most of the world, but the dwarves to this point refuse to use it, or make guns.  Instead they've worked at perfecting what they do - repeating crossbows and hand crossbows, etc.These elements combine to create conflict in dwarven society, as some dwarves feel they have lost their way, and should return to their oldest ways.  The formerly great empire has split into pieces (with one having been taken over by the obligitory dragon), and the race is in decline, although not so much in population numbers as in power and prestige - and even that is arguable, as their power in the financial realm is unassailable.</blockquote>

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