An Alternate Ecology of Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings: Part 2, More Dwarves

I said I'd talk more about dwarves, and I will. Incorporating what we decided last time, I'm going to mix that in with what I decided about dwarves for the Successor States of Rega.

Go here for part 1: https://www.ofgodsandgamemasters.com/blog/an-alternate-ecology-of-dwarves-gnomes-and-halflings-part-1-dwarves

So, I'm focusing on the dwarves of the mountains and the Deep Lands, here, and you'll find out why in time (spoiler, it has to do with where they interact with halflings and gnomes).

We figured out that these dwarves are highly sexually dimorphic, that there are way more males than females, and that they are matriarchal and matrilineal. That they are badger like in many ways, that they may use beards and mustaches to filter out airborne contaminants. It's also possible their whiskers help sense air vibrations.

Dwarves basically come in colors of the local earth and or stone, with no real relation to surface world skin tones, but the deep dwarves might tend to be super pale, like marble. It really depends on your preferences.

While they do trade with the surface, they rely on food sources that they can maintain below ground, like algae, fungi, cave fish, giant bugs, crabs, lichen...your standard fantasy Underdark stuff. Heck, real cave animals include cave fish, cave crayfish, cave shrimp, isopods, amphipods, millipedes, some cave salamanders and insects . Underground lakes and pools are a super important part of their ecosystem and sustenance.

That said, let's talk about the crabs. Giant, dangerous crabs and other crustaceans. Giant bugs, and the like. Imagine these things develop deep in the earth and in hot springs, near thermal vents. Imagine, that like similar organisms on earth, they have shells of super dense materials with a very high metal content (example, the volcano snail of the Indian ocean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-foot_gastropod ) Imagine that they have teeth of similar toughness, perhaps incorporatiing goethite or similar mineral the way limpet teeth do. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limpet ).

In a fantasy world, these minerals could be mithril or even adamantine. Imagine dealing with creatures who have adamantine shells and teeth . . . and what effect this would have on a society. In this case, I've decided that the dwarves of the mountains and the Deep Lands were inspired by this. They developed plate armors based on the arthropods and molluscs, often made from their shells, using translucent shells for faceplates. Why did they need full body armor and faceplates? Well, in many settings, the Deep Lands are full of aberrant creatures whose blood is toxic or mutagenic. In Rega, this is specifically due to the effects of a substance known as the Blood Of Invidia, the literal left over ichor of the draconic Titan slain at the creation of the world. Getting that blood on you, or worse, in your eyes or mouth, might kill, you, mutate you, corrupt you...it's bad. So the deep dwarves and the traditionalist mountain dwarves wear full plate armor with full skin coverage body suits beneath it, and great helms with transparent metal visors. All inspired by, and sometimes made of, the adamantine bearing shells of the arthropods they shared the deep with. They see themselves as a first line of defense for the world against the horrors that breed in the deep, and hold it as a sacred duty to destroy the aberrations they find. This gives them a warrior culture to match the craftsman culture...they end up being kind of like Mandalorian Crab Clan Samurai.:) Their weapons are also tools (picks, hammers, axes) but those are also the weapons best suited to counter heavy armor like that of the arthropods they fight.

As a side note: Dwarven vision is not long range. Most areas underground are much more cramped than that. But they can see perfectly in what humans would consider the dark, and there are a riot of colors to see, due to the many naturally phosphorescent minerals in the Deep Lands, and bioluminescence as well . . . its just none of it is in spectrums humans can see, and outside of the deep lands, everything looks black and white in comparison unless lit by 'visible' spectrum light. They do see very well close up, and can see finer detail than humans.

Because of the association with crabs, when Regan humans first encountered the dwarves, they called them the Karkinoi. (Points if you get the Greek mythology reference.) So if the first dwarves humans in Rega met were mountain dwarves and dwarves of the Deep Lands, where did hill dwarves come from, and what's the connection to gnomes and halflings? Buckle in and I'll get into that next time.

What do you think?