DWARVES
CHAPTER 1
Before a dwarf city can be founded, a sufficient number of dwarves must be searching for a new home. No dwarf city is infi nitely expandable, and since dwarves do not have an agricultural society, they rarely choose to live on their own. Under the earth’s surface, safety is found only in numbers. In addition, the natural resources must be sufficient to support a dwarf settlement. Water is certainly a concern—no dwarf city can long survive very far from a water source, and underground wells are rarely an option. Aside from water, the dwarves have many other concerns. They rely on underground f lora and fauna for their food supply, so the type of earth available must be able to support these crops. The area must be composed primarily of stone or exceptionally dense earth, because only these regions can support
the excavation that a dwarf settlement entails. Preferably, nearby caverns are available in which to build and expand, since excavating by hand considerably limits the eventual size of the settlement. Additionally, the dwarves must have raw materials nearby to extract and craft. They must have something on which to base the city’s economy, or it will wither and die as its children leave to pursue occupations that aren’t available locally. Stone will suffice as a resource, if no others are available, but the city will have little in the way of exports other than craftsmanship, usually resulting in a relatively poor city. Veins of metals are preferred, although precious stones work nearly as well. A typical dwarf city is described in this chapter as both a reference for DMs looking to design their own and as a location for use in a dwarf-based campaign.
THE DWARVEN ECONOMY Within dwarf society, the economy is driven by barter, not coin. While most surface kingdoms measure wealth in gold or silver because of its rarity, dwarves typically have as much gold and silver as they could want—and the best chance of finding more. They value these substances because of their beauty, not their desirability to surface-dwellers. The esteem that surface cultures place on gold and other precious metals serves the dwarves in good stead, however, and they are not unaware of the lure their possessions hold for other cultures. When a dwarf trades with another dwarf, he is not usually interested in increasing his personal wealth. He is far more interested in increasing his personal comfort and ensuring the survival of his family, clan, and city. With a deep sense of social responsibility ingrained in dwarves from birth, it is the rare dwarf indeed who puts his personal fortune above that of his brothers or sisters. As a result, most dwarves trade in raw materials or fi nished goods, not money. Taxes are paid in animals, furs, food, or weapons, not money or gems (unless the dwarf paying taxes is a gem miner, of course). Given this predilection for useful (and hard-won) daily goods over monetary concerns, it is a given that any dwarf in a dwarf city would rather trade in barter for surface goods or services rather than gold. Most dwarf cities do mint some coins in gold, silver, and copper for use with surfacedwellers, but they have no central treasury, and no government-sponsored control over how many coins are minted or what the coinage is worth. The dwarves
Illus. by S. Roller
Table 1–4: Dwarf Stronghold Name Suffixes d% Suffix Definition 01–04 -ack Bridge 05–08 -arr/-aln Tower 09–12 -bek Pass/Ford 13–16 -cral Hall 17–19 -dar/-dann Hearthplace 20–22 -dukr Wall 23–25 -duum Home/Manor 26–28 -eft Castle 29–31 -erg Town 32–34 -est Cavern 35–37 -fik Temple 38–40 -gak Homeland 41–43 -girn Mountainhold 44–46 -gyth Mine 47–49 -hak Bulwark 50–52 -hig Garrison 53–55 -jak Hold 56–58 -jyr/-jynd Camp 59–61 -kak Hamlet 62–64 -krak Fortress 65–67 -lagg Lair 68–70 -lode Citadel 71–73 -lyr/-lynd Grange 74–76 -malk Village 77–79 -mek Outpost 80–82 -nore/-noe Point 83–85 -rak Bastion 86–88 -ral Birthplace 89–91 -sten Rampart 92–94 -tek Cradle 95–97 -vir/-vin Barrier 98–100 -zak Anvil
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