How Dwarves Came to Altearth

The Dwarves were perhaps the first non-humans in Altearth. In fact, one school of thought, following Dwarvish mythology, says that Dwarves were actually here before humans. It’s true that Roman sources speak of people who lived under the mountains, though Dwarf is a German name, not a Latin name. Also, the cave-dwellers might have been anything from Kobolds to a tribe of humans.

If they did inhabit Altearth before the Fall of the Empire, the Dwarves kept to themselves, for at no time do they appear to have affected affairs on the surface. By the late Empire, they vanish from written record entirely.

We meet them again with the Great Invasions, first in the Alps. Chronicles by Gregory of Tours and others speak of how armies of Dwarves appeared in the passes to oppose the Goblins and later the Orcs, and how King Willem fought alongside Anselm of Milan to save that city. No one knows why the Dwarves decided to appear. If indeed they appear now for the first time, how did they arrive in the Alps?

Dwarven legends aren’t much help. They speak of a home kingdom and of an ancient feud with Kobolds and Duergar. They regard Orcs and the rest as being in some way the tools of the Duergar; they view it as an eternal war. Dwarven chronology is convoluted, to put it kindly, so there’s no way to know how long their kingdom was in existence before the Great Invasions. Nor is it clear if the Kingdom is beneath the Alps, some distant place, mythical, or indeed encompasses the whole world.

We do know this. Once the invasions were over, the Dwarves returned to their mines and meadows. They have ever been an independent race, uninterested in the trials of flatlanders.

By the Carolingian Age, Dwarves can be found in all the main mountain ranges, where of course Dwarves claim they have lived since the hills were flat. A terrible war was fought with the Goblins in the 5th century as they sought to cross the Pyrenees into Hispania. The Carpathian Dwarves engaged in a guerilla war that lasted centuries against a whole range of Wild Folk, including Giants and Drow. These Dwarves are the most reclusive and most dangerous to humans.

Some say there are Frost Dwarves in the Northlands, but others say this is only legend. Ask a Dwarf and he’ll say only what he has seen with his own eyes.

Dwarves never fight in flatland wars. They are no good at it, for one thing, and they have a strict policy not to get involved in “foreign” wars. Individual Dwarves, however, do go under the sun.

Helvetica

The mountain nation of Helvetica is comprised of one-third Men, one-third Elves, and one-third Dwarves. The Elves live in the canton of Unterwald; the Men live in the Schwyz, and the Dwarves live in Uri. These banded together as early as the 14th century to fight Giants and later Dragons, but the worst enemy were the Ogres.

Ogres are a bit like Men in that they are adaptable and can live most anywhere. The Carolingian Emperors drove them out of the lowlands, and the Free Folk of the Alps were scattered and disunited at the time.

Later, as Lombardy and especially Venezia grew in wealth, trade over the Alps became increasingly important. Men and Dwarves alike built roads and bridges, but it was Dwarven skill in particular that kept the roads in repair. Men tended to patrol and guard against monsters. Similarly, Elves gave protection in the deep forests and vales all the way to Augusta Vindelicorum. In the forests, Dwarves built the inns and waystations that doubled as defensive strongpoints.

Then came a series of Ogre warlords, all descended from the great Hab. From Hab Castle, a structure of vast size and deep roots, they extended their sway over the Cantons, growing rich on the plunder of merchants.

That’s when the Human, William Tell, emerged. He spearheaded the first alliance, along with his friends, Ulrich the Dwarf and Elana the Elf. They led the forces at Morgarten that destroyed Hab power forever, and then they went into Hab Castle itself.

Their heroism was so great that every Helvetic rebel since then has taken the name William Tell. Helvetic bards learn to sing of William Tell and the Blackbird, or William Tell and the Three Friends, or William Tell and the Apple, running all the acts of different heroes into one mythos.

Helvetica is so rich a prize that she has been invaded often. Every race and every nation has had a turn. While some have succeeded for a time, none can hold the Cantons because no one race can move equally well between the caverns, the forests, and the meadows. The frequent invasions, though, have made the Helveti deeply suspicious of outside politics. Do business with everyone, they say, and ally with no one.

Helvetic Dwarves are generally taller and fairer than other Dwarves, and are the only ones considered by humans to be possible to be called handsome. They can have blonde hair. Their features are rugged rather than lumpy, though they do have a tendency to become rotund in middle age. They love to drink beer but they are lousy brewers.

The government of Helvetica baffles outsiders. They have no king and are not a republic. Instead, each village can send a representative or two to cantonical assemblies, which exist in bewildering number and for many different purposes. The cantons, in turn, send representatives at need to a general assembly. In times of crisis, the general assembly might put forward a war chief and mobilize an army, but it’s also possible for this to happen independently, at the canton level. Whoever is chosen, he is given absolute power but his term of office is limited to six months, after which time he is forbidden to hold office of any kind for ten years.

The thing that tends to amaze outsiders is that these assemblies hold Men, Dwarves and Elves, all serving and working together. There is nothing like it in all the World. In fact, it’s not unknown for Humans to choose an Elf as their representative, or vice versa. It’s utterly unique.

Most people, if they think of Dwarves at all, picture small bands of masons working alone, calling to one another in their curious, drawling tongue. This is what most of us see of Dwarves: at work on a bridge or castle or temple, or maybe a band of them with their iron-shod carts, hauling dwarfstone.

Another image is of Dwarven heroes such as Urizar, who stayed behind at Roncesvalles to fight at Roland’s side. These are the great Dwarves of legend, wielding magical hammers and going head to toe with Giants, rooting out dark monsters from underneath the mountains, or braving Dragons in their lairs.

And then, less pleasantly, there’s the picture of the greedy Dwarf. He’s the one who charges bridge tolls, who steals from the unwary, who turns back travellers in snowy passes, who hordes all his wealth in caves guarded by brutal traps and who gives back none of it, not even to his own family. This is the Dwarf who stands by and does nothing while noble dukes fall, because there’s no treasure in it for him.

The truth is, more Dwarves dwell above ground than below it, and many are simple farmers. Once in a while a mine will strike and prosperity flows for a time and Dwarves flock to the tunnels. But the gems and metals flow out quickly to a hungry world. The boom is followed by a bust, and a mountain and its valley return slowly to an older routine. All over Helvetica you will see empty towns standing near empty mines. The Helveti call them Pebbletowns or, more scornfully, Splintertowns, to indicate the state to which the buildings—thrown up in haste—will soon return. Soon, for a Dwarf mason, is a century or so.

Pyreneean Dwarves

The Pyreneean Dwarves fall naturally into two branches: the Mountain Dwarves and the Navarrese. Both are fiercely independent, to the point of claiming that they are the true, original Dwarven race. Though the Navarrese and the Mountainese have quarreled ferociously, let an invader appear and they instantly forget all grudges, band together, and drive out the invader. Navarrese is the name for any Pyreneean Dwarf who lives in northern Hispania or in southern Aquitaine.

These Dwarves are dark-haired and dark-eyed. They speak a form of Dwarven unintelligible to other Dwarves. They are so clan-centered that many Humans suspect influence from the Elves of Galicia.

The Navarrese live in hills, not on flat land. Unlike any other Dwarven people, they can even be found on seacoasts, living in cliffs, though they avoid boats. More characteristic, though, is the tower construction—a single square or round tower with an entrance ten or even twenty feet above ground. This provides and guards the only entrance into an underground complex that holds a few score to a few hundred Dwarves, complete with livestock.

Dwarves of Cornwall and Devonshire

These for centuries have worked the tin mines for the British kings. They are a quiet, stoic folk, with tenacious courage. They put the lie to the stereotype of the Greedy Dwarf, for they live very modestly and do not covet gold.

They do, however, admire it, and they love to make beautiful things. Every Devon Dwarf will live in a plain home of ordinary stone, but will have a few objects of really extraordinary beauty. Each individual will have one. A couple will have one, as will a family and a clan. They are part of the family, though, and not for sale. Nor would anything be purchased to become a ‘loom. They have to be made.

A Dwarven mine machine

But it's the tin mines they are most famous for. These have been worked for centuries, as far back as we have records of Dwarves, and of course Dwarflore speaks of them selling tin to the Romans. But, then, Dwarves everywhere claim to be able to trace back to the Roman Empire. Most characteristic of the Cornish miners is the great machines they have constructed in order to work deeper and deeper into the earth. Their skill in this area has made them valuable even to other dwarves, and Cornish engineers can be found as far away as the Carpathians.

Heart Dwarves

These live in the Harz Mountains in Allmania. They probably come the closest to the stereotype Dwarf. They are principally miners, though they do more than mine for gems. In fact, it was Heart Dwarves who built and who continue to extend the salt mines of Salzburg.

The capital city of the Heart Dwarves is Goslar, in the Harz Mountains. Unprepossessing from the surface, Goslar extends for miles deep into the mountain depths; only the Tirolean Dwarves delve deeper.

Carpathian Dwarves

The most mysterious and remote, the Carpathian Dwarves are popularly viewed as treacherous, largely because of their role in the Recovery Wars, especially at Nicopolis and Varna.

Dwarven Magic

No one understands Dwarf magic, and some even claim it doesn't exist. But most Humans will pay a fortune for a weapon enchanted by Dwarven magic.

The line between craft and magery is blurry. Every Dwarf is a smith: roadsmith, bridgesmith, printsmith, magesmith. Their word for a vagabond beggar translates as "not a smith".

Dwarves Politics

Dwarves do city-states, like other mountain folk (Greece, Switzerland). And federations. They despise kings. They have incredibly complex political mechanisms involving multiple elections, election by lot, co-optation, and an infinitude of committees.

Humans and Dwarves

This is a close and ancient bond. The two races have had their differences, from chronic complaints about arrogance to occasional outright war. But they always close ranks against the Wild, and neither race trusts an Elf.

Humans regard Dwarves as sharpsters: always haggle with a Dwarf, for he'll always over-charge you. Yet, win a Dwarf's confidence, and he's capable of astonishing generosity. Dwarves are secretive, tricky, and overly-legalistic. The only thing more arcane than their political system is their legal system.

Elves and Dwarves

These rarely encounter one another, except by way of Humans, most particularly at Human royal courts and in Human cities (trade). They don't so much hate each other as they find each other incomprehensible. They have a modicum of agreement on the threat of the Wild, but Elves are far more accommodating than Dwarves on this. Elves are fine with Pixies or even Giants. Dwarves are not. A Dwarf in an Elvish enclave would feel a little like a Human visiting a freak show. You wouldn't go to war with the freaks, but you wouldn't be their banker either, or want to marry one. Not that they'd care.

On those occasions when they battle Wild together, the attack is never coordinated. It's a case of each fighting in their own way, and even at their own time and place.