Quote Originally Posted by Mordar View Post
So...the why aren't dwarves raiders and marauders was really just a joke about movement speed.

But with all of the other conversation in the thread going towards broad accusations and counter-accusations, projections and assumptions, and all of that other, I put forth this:

Dwarves could be an interesting and complex "always evil" race.

If we approach this from a D&D adjacent standard, and say the following actions map to evil (I find it likely to be a consensus): Disregard for life; Disregard for property rights of others; Rule via strength of arms; Fierce territoriality. This is not an isolated city, or one faction of this race in this setting. It is all of them, perhaps spread across a smaller range than other races might have. Communities can communicate with one another. They can trade with one another. And of course, they can war with one another.

No Evulz, no puppy-kicking or kitten-eating. No bad God on high saying "stab down upon the elf with vindictive stabbings". A reasonable, though likely not desirable, pathway to a cultural mindset that blankets the entire race in such a way that standard "high fantasy" worlds would view as definitely evil. Individually the dwarves might not be "bad", but their world places an indelible stamp on them that the rightness of "murder" (as defined by the high-fantasy world norms), theft, depraved indifference, "oppressive regime" (again as defined by the high fantasy terms), and even forms of cannibalism are valued cultural truths. We avoid at least two very common Evil Tropes here, and hold to those exclusions, because they are hamfisted and crappy in game, and [redacted] out of game.

Now, of course it is the nature of our stories that in time evolution will occur and this race will likely either assimilate other cultural truths - over many generations - or be pushed into extinction (or reduced so far as to be effectively extinct). But for the centuries-wide window of this RPG world, dwarves = "always evil".

Scarcity and isolation are heavy drivers of the story, stagnation propagating and uploading the established "tradition". Intense drive to protect dwarfkind. Intrusion of others "exploring" new areas. Decisions all predicated on survival of the species, all leading to an "always evil" race that would be a playable faction as well as a hated in-world threat. Dangerous raiders and killers all.

This takes much of dwarfiness that appeals to me, maintains it, but puts a significantly different spin on those same hallmarks. Survivors. Traditionalists. Artisans. They don't care about the outsiders' perspectives on their culture. They don't care what the Orc/Human/Elf/Gnome High Priest Dingleberry says the Gods say about their actions. They will survive.

Can you imagine the conditions that would lead to such a culture, and find it a reasonable exploration of the [human] condition, if such things are important to you?

Can you agree that such a culture, while clearly savage and immoral by modern standards (you know, within the last few millennia), could be internally consistent, give rise to interesting and potentially heroic characters, and hold a valuable place in an RPG (or fantasy fiction) setting?

Or is it just me?

- M
Yeah, they could work. There's a wealth of evil stuff to be done with dwarves. Industry run rampant, oppressive traditions, disregard for individuality, nationalism, so on and so forth.

Personally my preferred angle for evil dwarves leans heavily on the idea that only dwarves matter. Or more precisely only Clans matter, and non-dwarves don't have Clans (that the dwarves recognise) and as such have only what significance a dwarf is willing to give them. All dwarves have a Clan, made up of extended family, all dwarves obey their clan head or are exiled from the family, all disputes within a clan are settled by the clan head, all disputes between clans are settled by the noble the clan swears fealty to, disputes between nobles by their lieges and so on. Humans, elves, orcs and so on don't have clans, and so have no legal standing. They are outlaws, non-persons. A dwarf can do whatever they want to a clanless being because there is no one to advocate on its behalf.

If a dwarf decides they like a non-dwarf they might adopt them, either as property or as an honorary dwarf. In either case they are now part of the holdings of the adopters clan. This is basically the same as being a slave from a legal perspective, it's just that the owner is being nice about it. Dwarves don't necessarily screw over everyone they meet, but only because it's not profitable to do so, traders stop coming if you always break deals or rob them, but deciding to break deals with clanless or enslave them, or even hunt them for sport is not considered morally or criminally wrong among the dwarves, because legality is morality to them, and legality is determined by having a clan advocate.

Similarly, a clan dwarf in foreign lands does not respect the laws and traditions of those lands, because there is still no clan to speak with. They don't break the law willy nilly or anything, but they don't see breaking human laws as bad because to them humans don't have laws to break.