D&D General The thunder blessing - 2 generations later

[Shades of Eternity]

It was one of my favorite things of the 3e era. The fact that there was a dwarf baby boom changed everything and broke a lot of the stereotypes that dwarves usually cling to.

I'm thinking of writing an update on the repercussions over the last few editions, as well as updating stuff from the 2e supplement dwarves deep,

I'm already treating the generations as follows:

Thunder Blessing - Baby Boomers - 3e

The Silent Iron - Genx - 4e

The Emberborn - Millennials/Zoomers - 5e

so I'm asking:

What do you think needs to be addressed in such a supplement?

Whom do you want to hear from, giving their opinion?

Any prominent dwarves you want to check in on?

Any key locations to bring up?

 

[humble minion]

I liked that plot thread too, and it's a shame it was never followed up at the time. Short stubby people never seemed to get as much love in the game line or metaplot as slender hot elves or tieflings, or gothically angsty shades or drow...

Some stuff to think about:

Why is it called the THUNDER blessing? Dwarves largely live underground, storms don't really bother or affect them and I don't think they even have a weather god. What does thunder have to do with anything?

At the risk of overgeneralising based on your rough generation categories above, and at the risk of brushing as gently as possible against real-life stuff - could there be a degree of cultural strife post the Thunder blessing? Dwarves live a long time, and so their rulers and elders hold power for a long time. Maybe the elder generations are bing percieved as holding on too tight to the pre-Thunder ways or feeling out umbered and threatened by impulsive youth, while many younger dwarves are feeling like traditional dwarven society hasn't really got a place for them, and are exploring ?

What happens when a dwarf 'breaks the stereotypes'? How does that fit into ordered dwarven society? If you're the first dwarven wizard (for example) in your clan, how do you learn, who do you apprentice to, what guild do you join? Dwarven society has its old reliable structures, and there needs to be places for people if they want to fit in. If there aren't, either the structures have to change or people are going to get forced out.
Similarly, what about the dwarven pantheon? It's not the most varied one out there - pretty much half of it is made of some variant of battle or guardian gods. If the younger generation of dwarves are moving in large numbers beyond the Axebeard Goldminer stereotypes when it comes to lifestyle, they might not find a god that suits them among the traditional pantheon. Either the existing dwarf gods grow and change, or a lot of dwarves start worshipping non-dwarven gods, or else new dwarf gods spring up from somewhere to fill the gaps.

On a related note, where are the EVIL dwarven gods? I mean, you've got Abbathor, but he's pretty weaksauce, then the Duergar gods but they're pretty racially specific. Where's the dwarven god of excessive festering resentment and vengeance, or the dwarf god of stasis and the revering of the ancestors to the point of undead cultism, or the god of orc-hatred to the point of genocide? I kinda wondered briefly if the Thunder Twins were a sign of a second, parallel dwarven pantheon was being born, an evil pantheon as a philosophical opposition to the regular dwarven gods like the Dark Seldarine. Maybe one twin was destined to be good and one to be evil.. Or something.

 

[aco175]

Wouldn't the younger generation be the larger numbers? I get the reference to using Gen XYZ and such but the Boomers were the largest compared to the newer generations.

Some ideas for the youthful numbers to want to explore should include reclaiming old homelands. This will place them at odds with people living there and even with organizations that want to keep vile monsters undisturbed.

There could also be a revitalization with some of the gods, or even with a number of them worshipping some of the human gods.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't remember this, sounds like a cool story idea.

Is your assumption we're basically 50 years after the "boomer" phase so we get a generational setup more like real-world demographics, or do you want to spend more time on a more classic demographic pyramid,with more young than old.

In the former, the old ones probably get blamed for everything, but also created the foundation of significant advances in technology and magic, so maybe the current generation is trying to rebel, but they can't barely make a difference, because all the political power is in the end of the elder. But they might seek out strange allies - sometimes maybe particularly going back to traditions that the thunder boomers gave up on, others doing something else entirely.

In the younger, the old ones might still get blamed, and the current generation is rebelling quite successfully, if they ignore the old guard, that guard just doesn't have the manpower to do anything about it. The old guard is trying to preserve traditions (or clinging to them), and maybe they seek ways to control the young generation. The new generation might be discovering new ways to do things,but they might also be playing with things they don't understand - they might be the ones to invite strange beliefs, make pacts with dangerous identities, or anger threats (Balogs?) that better lay still. They flood out into the world, and the other races suddenly have to deal with all these Dwarves everywhere, some just finding new job opportunities, but some also demanding power and land for themselves that other nations aren't willing to part with.

 

[aco175]

Dwarves and orcs living together- kids these days.