Dwarfs Shouldn't Exist

dwarfs have a strange history in fantasy media from being a broad folkloric category of creature almost synonymous with elves in the pros Eda which establishes dwarves as skilled legendary Craftsmen through the nalong lead and tolin where they begin to be codified as treasure hungry Mining and crafting folks who live underground and have traditionally masculine presentation but this largely is where dwarf stay unlike elves for whom there are so many permutations dwarfen immutability seems a Mainstay of their modern presentation in the genre stubborn stoic traditional resilient and tough few presentations of dwarfs stray far from this mold and this makes dwarfen Societies in fantasy media feel reasonably familiar but given this classic presentation how are are the dwarfs even a civilized folk how on Earth can they brew beer breathe air and mine as a group of cave dwelling traditionalists today I want to re-examine this traditional image of the dwarf in hopes of exploring how such a bizarre civilization could ever come to be in the hopes of making classic fantasy dwarfs actually makes [Music] sense but before we start none of this worldbuilding deep dive means anything if we can't actually ever use it if you play ttrpgs or are interested and have no idea where to begin you might at least know that the biggest hurdle is finding a game that's actually going to run with a game master who is reliable and skilled start playing is the solution you can search Four game systems one shots and longer term campaigns and even buy your own schedule to find one of thousands of games that works for you at any experience level you can start playing the same day you start looking and forget digging through forums and discords to check the vibe of a GM start playing has verified reviews of game Masters to make sure you're actually going to have a good time never has there been an easier way to get into a game with a game master who suits your sty style experience level and interests over 50,000 players have already found a game on start playing and I'm one of them I hope you'll join me but now to dwarfs how to build them how to play them and how to make sense of them I have a few problems with the classic fantasy dwarf presentation first being that mining on a grand scale requires a lot of Technology from pulley to pics methods of moving excess water and actually breaking Rock it is seriously hard work and a surprising amount of historic mining practically necessitated the presence of wood from durable and light enough handles for tools to the Archimedes screw and especially the practice of burning logs at a rock face to Tunnel through it much faster than By Hand by forcing the stone to expand and contract rapidly wood is a necessity in human historic mining add to that that historically mining is actually very inefficient needing to leave a lot of stone and ore behind to preserve structural Integrity underground and an entire species built around this single process of mining seems like it would be tough to maintain bear in mind that even by the end of the medieval period up to 90% of people were involved in farming and agriculture to feed the popul and a race of Burly 4ot tall folks living almost exclusively underground toiling away forging and Mining is a struggle to justify with that context in mind so how can we justify this well there's a few ways one dwarfs are magic some settings position them as growing from Stone itself full formed with techniques and traditions in mining and forging to rival industrialized humans perhaps they consume or stone or Gems or are simply sustained by diligent work like a perpetual motion machine of a creature maybe if you disturb a dwarf from his work for too long it starts to starve fall into a malaise and die and maybe they have such a magical connection to Stone that traditional mining dangers affect them less they can literally feel when a single strike will destabilize a tunnel wonderful dwarfen civilizations have been World built with just just this much to sustain them but if we're going for a grounded real feeling culture then there are some big gaps we have to fill in I've got a few more ideas and hopefully all of them will change the way you think about dwarfs firstly let's assume that dwarfen traits are indeed the same as traditional they live underground they have a desire for precious stones and metals and they're tough as a creature they would need certain resources and fast to survive most likely light food and a way to get their hands on gems and gold in a fantasy world fulfilling these needs may be easier than in our world in which caves are narrow twisty and often not conducive to long-term survival at least of humanized creatures bioluminescence strikes me as a necessity if it can be found considering the danger of lighting fir and gas buckets and things like that underground as well as fungi generally which will likely form much of early dwarfen diets fungi are notoriously difficult to domesticate though so early dwarfs would likely need to hunt any fantasy Critters who like living down in the dark the ideal would be to capture and use a troll known for their regeneration as meat this on its own could serve as a semi sustainable food stuff but how to cook fire would be hard to come by without surface connections as little underground is combustible not least due to how wet everything tends to be primitive Proto dwarfs obsessed with gems and minerals would likely get their hands on these precious things through water sclo mining specifically setting up mesh of probably fungal design to gather Flex of gold and other Precious Minerals it is likely that to solve the cooking lighting and not large enough chunks of precious stones issues early dwarfs would gather near heat fents from the earth below or near volcanic regions which is where a dwarfen civilization could start in Earnest as the first Crucible is built bubbling a top magma to coales Gold Flex into a ring an Arro head or a crown this would be a significantly harsher existence than even that of early hominids in our world because at least we could run away across open Plains from danger in caves a dwarf's best bet is to use its small stature and natural toughness to squeeze down a hole and hope that the thing coming down after it won't fit if instead of taking the traditional dwarfen traits as our basis we take a classical dwarfen society as our end goal we can work back to discover what steps might have to have been taken to get there so dwarfen societies can forge Metals even legendary ones like mithil which we can assume has a probably a higher melting point in steel at a grand scale they consume copious amounts of Beer and Ale and they eat food they have fairly rigid societies centered around familial Clans and most dwarfs are engaged with mining making or military Endeavors on significantly industrious scales so in a similar order our dwarfs need industrial smelting processes on the level of the besser process from our 1850s and they have likely pioneered processes for superheated furnaces requiring significant oxygen pumping apparatus or the invention of a vacuum furnace they need a source of sustainable food which likely includes large amounts of grain for the beer which is notoriously difficult to grow without any sunlight as such they are likely to need extensive trade networks or a secondary Society of agrarian surface dwelling dwarfs and a clear and delineated social organization to make sure that these farming and trading dwarfs are not feeling left out from the uh precious metals and the forges they would also need to have relatively modern mining techniques as well to support a classical fantasy scale of dwarfen metaler and Industry we would need at least gunpowder or another explosive to make mining on an industrial scale feasible reimagining dwarfs in this way they almost literally cannot be grumpy social isolates a well-organized society is a simple necessity for dwarfen existence as either huge infrastructure is set up to allow sunlight underground or most dwarfen food comes from outside their their main underground settlements it is possible that a secondary surface settlement exists for every single dwarf and under Mountain Complex but it is more likely that trade is the best answer to their food problem after all dwarfs are traditionally seriously Advanced crafters and processes of or skills which are very highly sought after in other societies it is likely that the dwarfs and elves as two of those most classic ancient of species were once trading partners dwarfs requiring food and elves requiring smelted or without having to go down into mind themselves for it but as soon as humans or a similar Fantastical species comes into the picture that relationship is likely to break down human style agriculture is more expansive more land intensive and less in harmony with nature and is likely to produce higher doses of food surplus especially if dwarfen ore allows humans to essentially skip the Stone Age this trade Reliance setup though would likely require dwarfs to Foster strong trade links with various nearby societies operating almost as arms and Innovation dealers long-term security dwarfs would need to have every agriculturally focused neighbor on site partly to supplement their ancient Troll and fungus diets and partly to avoid the Stark reality that if their sole trading partner were invaded destroyed or migrated dwarfs will arguably just starve as such I envisioned these dwarfs not being isolates but perhaps the most outgoing and gregarious of folks by simple necessity their civilizational makeup literally requires dwarfs to barter for Essentials again assuming they can't support themselves how could dwarfs support themselves foodwise though uh there are a few ways that we could look into one they find a method to get sunlight underground complex mirror systems or massive illuminated Skylight style shafts as long as you have reasonable access to the surface or magic if not given the ubiquity of percolating water underground with everything being generally moist if dwarfs can solve the sunlight problem then rice might be an exceptional crop for them in these conditions not least because you can kind of Terrace it alternatively dwarfs could learn to farm some of the local produce perhaps fantasy plants that use magic corpses or heat as alternate energy sources these of course are entirely up to the individual World Builder for their domestic ability nutrition and SC scope but I would at least suggest that no such plant has significant leaves or perhaps even flowers but going back to our ventilation issue it is actually a big one industrial styled mining smelting and forging give off some seriously unpleasant gases and most crucibles do require a serious oxygen input to get to any high temperature the circulation of air is one of the greatest problems that a dwarfen Society must solve simply to live this issue is mitigated slightly by that classic conception of dwarfs as resistant or resilient against poisons but even so stagnant or sulfuric air is not efficient at powering either a species of people or a forge Crucible or anything of the like the easiest solution would be huge Rock ventilation chimneys carved straight up reaching out towards the surface where exhaust fumes are belched or perhaps a chamber filled with gas at the top and bottom of the settlements to catch the light and heavy gases respectively perhaps these great Chambers are ritually burned away in celebrations every so often gas management would be an industry or a guild all on its own in a dwarfen society and classic miners tests canaries and long sticks slightly on fire may prove useful too in that guard regarding mining specifically I find it incredibly likely that gunpowder is simply a dwarfen invention most likely a long long time before any other civilization even thinks of it it could come about like this dwarves tend to seek the largest caves they can partly for ventilation reasons which are still in some way accessible to surface trade under the model that I've laid out so far thus they are very likely to encounter huge colonies of bats guano is incredibly rich with salt peter and dwarfs are unlikely to find it as easy as surface dwellers to dispose of uh urine mixing in a couple of other ingredients which for legal reasons I won't be mentioning here dwarfs could easily discover a form of Proto gunpowder which makes large scale mining possible after this discovery I would imagine that dwarfs have a very very good relationship with any bats that might be living in their caves so much so that they would work hard to protect them especially ensuring that gas levels don't drive their useful upside down neighbors away which thinking about it a dwarfen bat loving civilization in a pretty close to the surface cave would be just perfect for a vampire but with all this said major dwarf and trained settlements are very unlikely to be out of the way hidden or reclusive trade settlements largely occupy surface caves and would have relatively open borders all things considered as long as the toll is paid most likely Desiring preserved food like uh dried fish fruit and nuts salted meat and alcohol dwarfs May gain reputations as gregarious but gluttonous folk as so much of their society revolves around food Imports but they would also be seen as some of the finest Traders and negotiators in the world on a darker note it is possible that the modern dwarf in this Grand civilization developed directly from our slightly more feral Proto dwarfs and so may retain a kind of uh more Savage and slippery character perhaps with particularly Draconian laws additionally trading and needing to maintain good relationships with everybody who produces food around you means means that inevitably the dwarfs will need to pick a site and may be quite utilitarian as to which of the Waring states around them is provided with equipment or weapons a smart City would likely play Both Sides as a shadowy arms dealing civilization whatever the case dwarf and forges are not tucked away hidden from the eyes and memory of man but are present either by the abundance of dwarf and minted coinage in the local area or the simple fact that a local mountain is almost always covered in Steam smoke or gases from the various vents cutting through its Rock so forget those dwarfs you know grumpy traditionalist social isolates and welcome in Peak dwarf a set of trade focused or obsessed folks trading Metal Works and master works for favors from all civilizations around Bringers of progress even after their own Savage and brutal past be warned though an alliance with dwarfs will always feel great right up until dwarf and steel is cutting your village down and there's the kicker it won't even be the dwarfs who are doing the fighting such is the way of the caves if I've inspired you to do something different with Dwarfs please do let me know and try out some of these ideas in your ttrpg games with our sponsor start playing my referral link is in the description but with all that said I've been Tom otherwise known as the grung master thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: The Grungeon Master

Views: 34,697

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Id: cgdYDrCoLps

Length: 18min 51sec (1131 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024