Exilian
Game Design and Project Resources: The Workshops Quarter => Tabletop Design - The Senet House => The World of Kavis => Topic started by: Jubal on February 28, 2018, 09:00:56 PM
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Dwarfs are one of the more common species across the world of Kavis. Like humans and gnomes, they are very diverse in their cultures, languages, and appearance.
Ethnography
A few common culturally and racially distinct groups among dwarfs follow. The "character archetypes" should be taken to reflect cultural perceptions, not how any individual dwarf of that group will be - they're a hugely diverse species!
> High Dwarfs. Living in fully Dwarf societies high in the mountains, High Dwarfs tend to be culturally inflexible, somewhat culturally rigid, and suspicious of outsiders. They traditionally wear chainmail and long beards.
> Westrins. These dwarfs are fully politically and culturally integrated into the multi-species culture of Alasia and other western polities. They often wear short-cropped beards, and are considered to be quite belligerent compared to their cousins.
> Luida (literally "Dwarf" in the Kavyne language): the most common cultural group across the Ruvia, the swathe of deep river valleys, mountains, jagged coastlines and offshore islands that lies north of the Starlit Sea and forms the politically fractious bridging region between the northwestern polities and the larger, older civilisations south and east of the sea. Luidan dwarfs tend to live semi-integrated with a largely human valley populace, generally occupying their own small settlements. They are less nervous of the sea than other dwarfs, and have a cultural tradition of making scale armour, which both makes them visually distinct and leads to the mocking name of "fish-dwarf" among High Dwarfs.
> Barbegazi, the snowbeards, live in mountaintop and arctic climes. They have unusually large feet, pale skin, pure white hair, and piercing blue eyes. They are generally treated as friendly but highly eccentric by outsiders due to a range of rather unusual customs they have.
> Deep Dwarfs. Little is known about the deep dwarfs by most dwarfs, let alone most non-dwarfs. They live in extremely deep underground cavern systems and only occasionally come to higher levels to sell minerals or otherwise trade, almost exclusively in dwarf-only settlements.
> Thacyans, from the far east, are an uncommon but not unknown sight. Their reddish skin, black (or occasionally yellow-blonde, but this is rare) beards, shaven scalps and linen padded armour are noticeable features.