Dwarves in Garnia

Pictured - the Dwarf leader from the Grenadier "Gold Box" official AD&D boxed set "Dwarves", I don't know who painted him, I found him in a google image search.

I have written a bunch of notes regarding the various non-humans in Garnia over the last few years, I am going to compile them here so I can have a more comprehensive document in the future, and I am going to start with the Dwarves, because, despite my personal preference for Elves, Dwarves have seemed to edge them out in popularity over the years.

From the document “Campaign Primer #1” -

“Dwarves- All Dwarves are exiles from their homelands. They live in the larger communities of Humans, generally in their own “quarter” or, more rarely, in their own small communities. They are renowned for their skill as craftsmen, and as tough warriors. They are sometimes despised for their crass materialism and their odd religion. In ancient times a “Dwarven Legion” served the High King of Garnia.”

This was from a short description of the available playable races in the Garnia campaign I had set in Caergwyn.

From the document “Campaign Primer #2” -

“In ancient times the Avergwyn was a major trade route, as it is navigable for most of it’s length, all the way into the ancient Dwarven kingdom of Khazarak, and far up the Averyraen from where it branches to the legendary iron mines of the clanna turchos.”

This one was just a reference to the Dwarven kingdom of Khazarak.

From the “Lost Atlantis House Rules Document” -

Dwarf -

Dwarves are the most common standard non-human race. They also come in two types, citizen and non-citizen.

Citizen Dwarves have adopted Roman culture and live within the empire. They have their own Legion (Legio XXXI “Vulcan's Hammer”). They also dominate some professions due to their predispositions and cultural legacy, they work stone and metal particularly and they are often found in trade professions.

Kingdom Dwarves have an independent, but allied kingdom at the east end of the middle sea. They maintain their own cultural traditions and are pretty much the common Dwarven stereotype.

This is from the non-core Garnian setting of Nova Roma, it “attaches” to the core Garnia setting as the western half of the great continent map. The mountains of Khazarak, the vast steppe and the southern deserts separate it from the core area. The Dwarven kingdom referenced is a tiny fraction of the ancient Dwarven kingdom of Khazarak, a successor state.

From the document “Lost Atlantis” -

Dwarves – Dwarven culture is based around the collection of status by males which may lead to breeding rights with females. The male to female ratio is extremely skewed with males outnumbering females by a ratio of roughly 10:1. Males increase their status in many ways, service to their society being foremost. This service can manifest itself in numerous ways, finding and exploiting new resources, military action to protect or expand territory, creations of masterwork quality. Dwarf females spend their time breeding, taking care of and teaching dwarf children and form ruling councils. They breed, roughly, at a rate of 1 child per year. A Dwarf woman will have a child usually every year from the age of about 35 until about 150, after which [she] reaches menopause and becomes an “elder matron”. Dwarves do not mate for life, they mate for breeding purposes, a female selects a new mate each year, based on the male's status. Males that have previously bred are less likely to find a mate for the year, unless they fathered a female or garnered significantly more status than they had at their previous mating.

This was also available separately for Dwarf players as a handout on Roll20. This may be the clearest I have ever written about Dwarven culture or biology.

From the document “New Garnia Campaign” -

Dwarves are a dying species, their kingdoms lost, overrun by the Troll Lords, they are a people without a homeland and they seem to have lost the will to continue. Dwarven women are rare, and nigh indistinguishable from the men, as they are bearded, small breasted (unless nursing), have the same height and muscle-mass, and work all the same professions. Dwarven children are nigh unheard of, any given Dwarven community having just a handful per human generation. Dwarves have low fertility rates, and less drive to breed than humans. They do live a lot longer though. They have little affinity for magic, although their forge rituals often provide enchantments to their weapons and armor, and occasionally they have a pious enough religious type that can cast spells.

Gnomes are a sub-species of Dwarf that have evolved on this world back when the Sidhe ruled it, the magic of the world gave them a slight affinity for magic and they are shorter and slighter of build than Dwarves. They prefer forested hills and subterranean burrows as living spaces and are friendly to Elves and Dwarves, they are quite rare.

This document was written in July of 2016, the day before my birthday that year and about a week before we found out Mona's cancer was back. The entire document was just notes for the Garnia Post-Apocalypse game I was setting in the area of Caergwyn, some of the idea made it into the campaign primers, but that campaign never got played. It is noteworthy that the Dwarves here are slightly different than the ones presented in the Lost Atlantis campaign, notably in that they are an explicitly dying race, and their fertility rates are practically non-existent. I include it here mainly to see what is still useful from it. Maybe Dwarves in the eastern part of the continent are worse off than their western cousins?

I also left in the bit about Gnomes, because it may be the only reference I have ever made to them. I have often thought about removing them from the setting altogether, but Garnia was designed for use with (core) AD&D back in the day. This seems like an easy way to keep them in.

What I haven't seen mentioned in any of my saved documents, is that Dwarves are no more native to Garnia World then Humans are. They were the Elves partners in some ways, back when the Sidhe Empire was a thing, but before the Humans got here. They still hold a grudge against the Elves for closing the gate to their home world. The Elves were justified in doing so, but the Dwarves don't see it that way.

I have some notes from the Kaupangrfjord campaign I ran, and a bit about the setting itself that I was planning on rebooting; but mainly it's about individual Dwarves. The Garnia blog ( https://garnia-blog.blogspot.com/search/label/Dwarves ) has some stuff too, but nothing earth shaking, lots of pictures of cool Dwarf miniatures, and a bit of talk about how they fit into Human society, and their history with the Elves, and some references to their kingdom of Khazarak.