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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Worldbuilding: Customizing the D&D Dwarf and Dwarven Culture
D&D Dwarves

Worldbuilding: Customizing the D&D Dwarf and Dwarven Culture

Fantastical Mounts: Ride into Legend with New Creatures for 5E
Philosophy of Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game Hobby No. 1

While speaking with a friend about game world ideas for Dungeons & Dragons I mentioned I had done some preliminary work on defining the human cultures of my game world to which he immediately asked “what kind of dwarves will you use?” I honestly hadn’t even considered anyone’s perception of a dwarf would vary greatly from my own so I went with what felt like a natural and reflexive answer. “Oh you know, standard quasi-norse-scottish dwarves”.

D&D dwarf

A dwarf as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

I had already mentally prepared my next statement as I scanned through the document in front of me, excited at the opportunity to share my ideas, when he interrupted again “like the Tolkien ones or the D&D ones or Warhammer ones?” That’s when it hit me we don’t all think of the same “dwarf” when we think of them.

Some dwarves have guns or wield arcane magic while still others have no trust for the arcane, perhaps have never heard of a gun, or can’t imagine shooting what could be just as easily be dispatched in honorable melee with an axe. This spawned a whole load of divergent thoughts about how to proceed but one thing I knew for certain was the dwarf, already well-defined in my own mind, needed attention in my D&D worldbuilding.

I divide this worldbuilding exercise into two sections, the first is referencing known dwarven materials using things like D&D, World of Warcraft, Tolkien and so much more. The second section is really just about my own choices and my choice of defining things simply. I admit the actual entry in the worldbuilding notes would include many more details but those I do include here are the ones that seemed like the most important to define at the time. In all my research ultimately the most mundane and basic items were the least often explained and thus became my focus.

A dwarf is just a dwarf in D&D, right?

Races, as portrayed by a great deal of older science fiction and fantasy, tend to follow rigid constructs and this has never sat well with me. This pre-existing set of stereotypes continues to be nurtured and cultivated even in more modern media. Elves are some rigid concept of having equilibrium with the world around them, dwarves mine and like shiny things, and orcs are somewhat ignorant warmongering beasts.

This certainly isn’t the case of every portrayal of these examples – a video game comes to mind where many orcs are rather smart – but the general concept of a single stereotype portraying an entire people always bothered me.

dwarvenMy personal feeling is a race of people is not a single stereotype but would certainly have cultural norms to help define them. These cultural differences allow for the variety of people we see in the modern world. The idea of a multitude of dwarven subraces seemed better suited to a video game then a storytelling game like D&D. I realized as I explored this concept of a single dwarf race with multitudes of cultural divergences I found it riveting and so, from that point on, staunchly held to the idea of a dwarf, being a dwarf.

As I continue work I realize I am constantly fighting the temptation to define literally everything.

Can the lizardfolk be more than a construct of a dark god and become their own people? How can we define the relationships between the more dominant races in the world? Who are these peoples and why have they become so widely spread and influential?

More than anything I wanted the ability to construct the world organically so answers to deeper questions would be provided intuitively. If I focused enough on providing the details needed to allow imaginative players and GMs to fill in the blanks on their own I could drastically simplify my task all the while making it much easier for a reader to grasp my own vision of this setting. I don’t need to tell you dwarves like to drink beer, mead or ale. I’m betting your own mental image of a dwarf already included that. The more intuitive the answer to a question is the easier it’ll be for the audience to easily digest the world. Immersion is king, after all.

I decided, prior to my “dwarf” conversation, beginning with the richest peoples of the world would be the most direct path to understanding road placement. Road placement means allowing me to easily construct maps and that was actually my original goal. When discussing the humans of the world I had already decided on city locations and much more without factoring in a great many, and now even more important factors. I found this approach was a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

I considered who would have the most material wealth based on known culture, preferred settlement areas and likelihood to engage in trade as well as there defensibility (to retain wealth). The dwarf soon became the only logical choice. Before breathing life into my own perception of the dwarf I needed to do some research, as mentioned above. I prefer to write from a informed standpoint and, because dwarves are a much loved fantasy race, it is not the kind of thing one should take lightly. Here are the most immediate references used though many, many, more were certainly part of the process.

All the dwarves, multiple dwarf races

dwarf

The use of racial divergence is a common theme in fantasy settings and while sometimes appropriate, I feel like it has become a crutch on which far too many lean. One approach to understanding and more importantly explaining dwarven societal structure is the use of multiple races.

In one instance the dwarves are broken into two immediately useful species (though more exist) working in concert to fulfill all the needs of a single group. As an example, one breed of dwarf serves the agricultural and trade needs of the other, while the more reclusive breed spends its time gathering materials and manning the forges deep in the mines. I understand the appeal of this approach but I find it incredibly unsatisfying for a whole host of reasons. To me, this sounds like a cultural divergence, not a separate race.

Varied races of dwarf exist in different settings and by achieving equilibrium between the different races (of dwarf in this case) one could most certainly imagine complex relationships developing. This does raise yet another problem however. If they live so close and work together, presumably for much of recorded history, how are they a divergent race? Who did the work (mining or farming) before the two breeds of dwarf diverged from one another? As is the case for many of these quandaries we quickly run into a chicken-egg scenario, leaving me feeling completely unsatisfied. There is no need to bring other species of dwarf into the equation, its not requisite to getting the job done and in some cases, it’s just silly.

Dwarves are dwarves unless we’re talking about a massive divergence in the bloodlines truly constituting something unique; duergar are an excellent example of something radically different and for good reason.

Tolkein dwarves

Tolkien dwarves, from what can be derived directly from the books or even movies, almost exclusively relied on trade. Nearly all or literally all foodstuffs the dwarves consumed, and presumably clothing, came from dwarven trade with other cities and villages. If you’re even moderately familiar with ancient history you understand this simply isn’t how things work except in the rare cases of massive metropolitan areas like ancient Rome or Carthage. As a matter of course I would mention Carthage and Rome both had easy access to food in the form of large rural farms or fishing.

Ultimately the reason these concepts are so hard for me to accept is because they propose a variety of common sense questions lacking simple common sense answers. If the dwarves’ only food source is a township that suddenly falls under siege or raid then the dwarves too are effectively under duress. Do dwarves launch their armies into battle on a whim, incessantly dealing with the endless (and often petty) squabbles of mankind? What happens if the nearby trade partner has a poor harvest and there isn’t enough food to sell or share? This was a very real problem of the ancient world and self reliance was the most common solution.

We know many kinds of dwarves, as represented by books and media, typically don’t like to rely on outsiders and in the most extreme cases dislike any involvement with the outside world at all. The idea that dwarves would engage in incessant, necessity-based trade becomes even more far-fetched when this kind of cultural norm is applied. In the case of the trade-heavy dwarf, we see the atypically strong, stoic, and powerful dwarven society suddenly very reliant on the outside world and forced to maintain good relations out of necessity rather than choice.

Its hard for me to imagine properly perfumed and well spoken dwarves attending the diplomatic court of some far off king, forced to grovel, compliment and bow in order to secure the next years’ harvest or winter supply of grain. The dwarf I imagine would rather shave his beard then attend the court of pomp humans just to solidify a trade deal. To me, this would be akin to the dwarves begging. Can you imagine a dwarf begging for something? I certainly cant.

Races of Stone (3.5 edition D&D)

I must say, I absolutely loathe this book’s approach to the dwarf. This is largely because of my own preconcieved notions about dwarves. In Races of Stone a whole host of my own concepts of a dwarf are thrust aside as the creator engages in a bender of chaotic and occasionally nonsensical creativity. Rather than reinforcing any common notions of what dwarves are like the book decides to mix things up by fabricating a whole host of ill-conceived notions. These include fungal farming dwarves, moss based clothing (I’m not making that up) and a whole menagerie of beliefs often contradicting the very edicts of dwarven life as set forth by the book itself. I’ll be honest, it’s a hard read and not because of the writing but because of the liberties the book takes with dwarves and the utter lack of a coherent vision. This book recasts my personal vision of what a dwarf is into something entirely alien to me.

Creativity on the net

If you Google dwarven agriculture you can find some pretty creative solutions ranging from giant light carrying crystals and underground farming all the way to special kinds of mushrooms growing somewhere in the depths of the dwarven empire. It all seems a bit overblown and fantastical (even for D&D). Can you really imagine a dwarf happily munching down a pile of mushrooms or does some other image, a barrel chested dwarf scarfing down a leg of lamb and swilling a hearty brew, fit better? If you’re like me and the greasy drunk dwarf seems like a good fit, then were in the same boat.

My world, my choices

Now that I have a general idea of what’s out there and some idea of what I want to accomplish, it time to get started on creation. For my own part I feel like dwarves could easily take care of their own needs by providing their own food. Self reliance solves a plethora of problems and inconsistencies I noticed in the vast majority of source material. I also see no reason to divide them into multiple races as it really doesn’t make much sense. I think the idea of culturally divergent dwarves, on the other hand, sounds absolutely riveting!

Hill Dwarf D&DIf, like many human cultures, the dwarves don’t have immediate access to a resource we can assume some level of trade takes place. By covering the basic needs of the dwarf we can then follow the logical route of import/export for luxuries or other items the dwarves may want without making them overly reliant on it. This also adds the ability to maintain a position of power when trading, which to me is much more befitting my vision of the proud and stoic dwarf.

In order to make the dwarf self reliant I first need to define some items pertaining to basic human, or dwarven, needs. A staple food is the primary source of sustenance – a large part of the diet for a given people. This doesn’t mean all they eat is the given staple but many and varied dishes would include it as the backbone of the meal. A very simple example of a staple would be rice which a large part of the world relies on as its staple. What is the staple food of the dwarf and how, living high in the mountains, could they produce it?

Dwarves eat oats. Oats are incredibly resilient as far as grains go and can thrive in cold wet environments which perfectly defines the environment I think of when imagining a dwarven hold. In point of fact places like Scotland and Iceland grow oats precisely because of how hardy it is! Now this certainly doesn’t mean every cultural variation of the dwarf consumes oats but, for the sake of simplicity, those in the region of the world I am currently creating do. I’m fairly happy with this concept and, as I mentioned above, my choices here allow progressively easier and ever more intuitive choices later on.

This brings me to the next element of my dwarven civilization. Oat straw, the remaining plant, post harvest, is an excellent food for wintering livestock as are the oats themselves. Since there would most certainly be an abundance of it then it would make sense for the dwarven holds and outlying dwarven farming communities to raise, and keep, a healthy amount of livestock. Since it fits not just climate and available grazing land but also some of the more recent portrayals of the dwarf I think the sheep/ram is a perfect choice.

A larger and more robust breed of the Merino ram could be used as a beast of war and a beast of burden in the fields or mines and out on the road in trade caravans. The ram could be both an iconic mount and a powerful symbol of these mountain-dwelling dwarves. The dwarven Merino sheep would be a source of wool for clothing as well as milk and all its derivatives such as cheese or butter.

With oats and rams I have defined how the most basic needs of the dwarf are met and achieved my primary goal of making a dwarf who adheres to my own vision of the dwarf while answering many of the bothersome questions I had about them. Now even more choices avail themselves as I allow simple common sense to dictate more aspects of the world. If the dwarves trade then surely they have roads leading to other settlements. Who maintains these roads and why? Where are the natural boundaries between the kingdoms now that I have defined the dwarf as a race spending time above ground as well as below? Is there tension between herders over available grazing space since these massive rams and sheep no doubt eat as much as a horse? How rare is dwarven cheese and how many gold will it cost me?!

As you can see I could spend days answering these questions. However the core of this exercise is complete, in taking care of smaller details I made it easy and even intuitive to answer any of the myriad questions that could arise later. Ultimately my belief is players and GMs should be given precisely enough information to have a solid grasp of the world and its occupants without forcing them to memorize loads of extraneous details.

I suppose all this culminates in my realization that I, as a worldbuilder, GM, or player want a world well enough defined to live in but not so well defined I feel restricted by it. A race, brand of magic or pantheon of gods should contain enough complexity to arouse interest but still remain fundamentally simple enough that obvious and intuitive answers can be drawn without the need for reference material.

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Erin Truitt

I cook, write, design and game.

2 Comments

  • Mike Gould
    December 28, 2017 at 11:09 am

    An excellent thought experiment. Thank you for tackling this, and perhaps inspiring others to do the same.

  • Kyle Ellis
    January 17, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    I love the thought and care put into this. i approach world building in a similar regard, though i like using subraces I find they are a good way to give multiple interpretations of a species. I like to apply Enviroment to the race as dwarfs living in the sand dunes would have a vastly different culture then ones living in a volcano on a tropical island. I find a good way to keep subraces connected yet unique is a core value they share then apply that to a different enviroment. Dwarfs are miners and smiths so what if you put them a place like the redwood forest? they would be wood workers instead. In the desert they could become glassblowers and in the arctic they could live in glaciers and be icesmiths. I try to make all subrace abilities be culturally/enviromentally apropriate, usually as things like heat/cold tolerance. advantage agaisnt sand or snow blindness. Better traction or climbing. The core race abilities are were the genetic abilites should come in. As standard practice, my worlds only have one variety of a race, sometimes a second variety gets thrown in due to plot reasons but i agree with you that subraces in practice dont work when all of them are on the same planetand playable simultaneusly. I do like having as many subraces as possible in the PHB though so i can choose which variety i want for my campaign.

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