Dwarves, unlike my reimagining of humans in a fantasy setting, are pretty solidified as a particular type in most all fantasy. They are gruff and laconic, they care about honor and glory and legacy, and they have a love of rustic underground life, particularly with mining and smithing trades. I never really thought it valuable to fight against that. When a dwarf is introduced in a fantasy work, we all generally know what they're about, and I didn't think that redefining one of the two most core and iconic fantasy cultures was really worth the effort. What I did instead was expand the idea to include why dwarves are still basically what Tolkien gave us. In my world, dwarves succeeded by having close communities with fairly independent members, and that meant always choosing what was best for the group despite different positions. As a result, dwarven culture is fundamentally about hierarchy. Morally, some actions are more good than others, or more in line with dwarven values. Professionally, some armor holds up better than other armor. Religiously, there must be someone who is more devout than others, just speaking logically. So competition to be the best at the things dwarves have always been best at becomes a core part of dwarven life. And so my dwarves in-game are usually sort of quiet, noble people with a drive to bring respect to those they care for, even if the pursuit of that becomes fraught or dangerous. It's more or less a rationalized version of what we all hear about dwarves. But it's also pretty one-dimensional, and I want my dwarves to be more complete. So let's get started looking at the five most notable clans in dwarven culture.
The Matheson Family
In dwarven politics, certain voices tend to dominate the conversations over generations rather than the life of one politician. Because dwarves must own a considerable amount of land to qualify for participation in politics, political dynasties usually stick around. As a result, some families have remained in political power for a long time, and none has more legacy or power than the Matheson Family. Most families consider it a great boon for the family to have one family member in a political position; the Mathesons currently have one family member in each division of the government. Father Nixon Matheson serves on the small and prestigious legislative committee, which has the ear of Dronith Craghammer quite directly. Eldest son Gabriel serves as a judge in Underhar's highest criminal court circuit. Middle son Jedediah is part of Underhar's military command, making strategic choices and overseeing public relations with armed forces. Youngest son Georgewell is head clerk for the Dronith's recordkeeping and accounting division, in charge of a great deal of the regency's funds and histories. Together, the Mathesons have a hand in practically every part of Underhar's political world. Current Matheson politicians have also overseen the instatement of loyalist dwarves in cities near Underhar, particularly Torga--many of Torga's guards in the Jute and a good number of Torga's system of judges are affiliated with the Mathesons, representing traditional dwarven values and traditions. This is another element of the image of the Mathesons, who are devout and conservative followers of traditional dwarven ideas.
The Matheson family who emerged in Underhar's history stretches before the city's construction, but the legend of the Mathesons begins as Underhar came to be. Histories show that patriarch Haenok Matheson (whose first name graced one of the plains of the dwarven homeland) took decisive positions on several issues facing the dwarves settling the base of the Kallett Mountains, mostly arguing to push forward even if doing so was risky. His voice helped the dwarves to press on through uncertainty and obstacles, and when political leadership of Underhar was assembled under the then-Dronith once the city was livable, Haenok Matheson was the first on a short list to be involved in politics, as his aggressive philosophy aligned particularly with the Dronith's. In the years that followed, Matheson's pushing forward proved helpful to the dwarves, and the perception that Matheson was particularly wise only cemented his status as a vital politician. Over the years, as Underhar has faced new issues, any Underhar politician has had to keep up with the times while still honoring the past, and few families have done that better than the Mathesons. It is worth noting that the Mathesons' power puts them in a position to trade support for favors or coin, and people accept this bargaining not as corruption but as part of the rules of the game, with some people even believing that the Mathesons are particularly savvy to take advantage of their position.
On the topic of perception of the Mathesons, it's fair to say that most dwarves look favorably on the Mathesons. The belief that the Mathesons are strict traditionalists who adhere surely to the old ways is largely true. Many dwarves admire the power of the Mathesons, but many more look to the Mathesons as an example of how to live--aggressively, traditionally, with nothing held back. Some dwarves--the more progressive of them--are less sure about the Mathesons, whose confidence resembles recklessness, whose adherence to tradition looks like being stuck in the past, whose boldness and passion resembles manic fervor. But speaking against the Mathesons would be social suicide, and so even the doubters keep their doubts to themselves. Things are not so restrained outside dwarven society. The more generous of Evanoch's non-dwarves say that the Mathesons are good at being politicians; the more critical say that Mathesons are basically dwarven versions of Daltoners, which is intended as a terrible insult; those in the middle say the Mathesons are run-of-the-mill corrupt politicians who should be avoided or opposed. This is especially true in Torga, where Matheson-affiliated guards and judges are loathed for bringing a foreign influence into their city. But beyond their pushing pawns outside of Underhar, the Mathesons are more than happy to stay where their power is, so most Evanines judge the Mathesons as problematic but non-urgent.
The Hardiman Clan
In any given society, there is bound to be some group that truly embodies the values of the whole culture from which they come. For the dwarves, that is the Hardiman Clan. The greatest aspirations for any growing dwarf is to excel at an honored profession like smithing or fighting, to be devout followers of Moradin, and to maintain a successful, dignified family; the Hardimans have historically checked all of those boxes in the extreme. The Hardimans, a very large family by dwarven standards, align themselves along three professions: smiths, soldiers, and clerics of Moradin (or occasionally Kord and very occasionally Heironeous). Those at the height of the trades teach younger Hardimans, and the clan is known for the controversial position that a soldier's son might choose to learn clerichood from an uncle rather than combat from his father--the Hardimans regard themselves as one large family, not a group of smaller independent families. This philosophy about family too paints the Hardimans as true dwarves' dwarves, as it is a very traditional belief, and dwarves prize tradition highly. Current Hardiman Clan organzation is complicated, as there are roughly one hundred members of the family--Hardimans marry young to families with strong business prospects (and joining the Hardimans is an attractice prospect for many), then have as many children as they can reasonably support. Over four generations of this, the Hardimans have grown from a singular family to an empire of experts who are publicly very magnanimous and warm to all dwarves. The only truly surprisingly element of Hardiman philosophy is an alteration to traditional dwarven ways: while most all dwarves today support trade with other cultures but otherwise a strong policy of isolation, the Hardiman Clan has made an effort to make more substantial contact with other cultures, and the Hardimans were the first dwarven family in Underhar's history to expand to beyond Underhar, creating small dwarven settlements outside of normal dwarven lands and keeping up trade and communications with the new towns. The current heads of the Hardiman Clan are eldest brother Vernon, cleric of Moradin at one of Underhar's premier temples, the Rock of the Forge; the elder middle brother Samuel, a member of Dronith Craghammer's personal guard; the younger middle sister Ava, owner and proprietor of Hardiman Metalworks, a beloved and respected smithy; and youngest brother Morris, a political organizer and sometimes royal advisor.
In Underhar, the elite can trace their lineage and the legacy of their lineage back to the original construction of the dwarven capital. The Hardimans, on the other hand, have only owned enough property to be able to vote in the last few hundreds years. Robin Hardiman, widow of the patriarch of the family, decided that to feed her children, she would make a desperate gamble and sell everything of value they had to start over with a new business. She sold off the family home, everything of her passed husband's, and anything they didn't strictly need and bought the biggest patch of unused land in the city she could, where they built her shop. The shop sold tools, religious items, arms and armor, and classic dwarven literature and secured apprenticeships for her three children with a smith, a cleric, and a soldier. As the years passed, Robin kept using her profit with the business to fund her children's education and buy more connected land, and eventually, the Hardimans had a breakthrough. An expansion of Underhar put their considerable land along a major travel route; the shop became popular on its position between old and new Underhar; Robin began renting land to dwarves and selling them the supplies to build their new homes. The children became moderately successful in their trades and taught their children to be even better. And the Hardimans now owned enough land to have a right to vote and participate in other civic activities (only the 10,000 dwarves with the most land have political rights), which opened even more doors. By the time Robin Hardiman passed in her mid-400s (a long, long life for a dwarf), the Hardimans had clan members in every respected organization in Underhar and developing political clout. Today, youngest brother Morris Hardiman has influence over Underhar politics in a way that Robin would be shocked by and proud of.
As one might imagine, the Hardimans are held up as an example of what the best dwarves can be. One might expect to hear some kind of detraction from competing families or disgruntled renters or people who claim the Hardimans are all façade and no real substance, but no such criticism exists. The Hardimans are not cutthroat in business and maintain good relationships with their peers. They offer exceedingly fair rental rates since the land ownership is just about gaining a political voice. In public and private affairs, the Hardimans handle themselves with dignity and kindness. In fact, many of the Hardimans' arguments in the political realm of late have centered on reforming dwarven law, with universal enfranchisement and changing inheritance law to include women at the top of their list. Outside of Underhar, people tend to see the Hardimans as the best dwarves they're likely to meet, especially since Hardimans and the settlers they've sent out are less resistant to assimilation, less likely to minister to others, and more likely to offer a good business deal. From an outside perspective, Hardimans do seem pretty distinct from other dwarves--this is particularly pronounced in matters of morality and philosophy. In game terms, most modern dwarves are aligned as Lawful Neutral, bound by tradition but not guided to embrace or avoid morality, but the Hardimans are distinctly Lawful Good and perhaps even leaning into Neutral Good. Interestingly, most dwarves consider themselves morally good regardless of their actual actions, so the Hardimans embracing genuine good doesn't make other dwarves feel different in any way.
The Brightstone Clan
The Brightstones are explorers, excavators, and builders in the dwarven tradition. For as long as there have been dwarves, say the legends, there have been Brightstones to guide them and give them homes. Many believe the Brightstone Clan to be composed of an itinerant family; in reality, Brightstones recruit young people with natural senses and skills that would aid them in Brightstone pursuits and adopt them, and the young person takes on the Brightstone name and training so that they too can become experts. The founding of Underhar was overseen by a team of Brightstones who led the centuries-long excavation process after years of searching for the right place to call home; the years that followed saw dwarves moving gradually into Brightstone-built homes as Underhar took shape, and in fact, the grand hall of Underhar which all visitors must pass through includes massive statues of eleven legendary dwarven rulers and one Brightstone, without whom Underhar may never have existed. Today, the Brightstones are a small clan as they always were, less than ten living at any point, but the Brightstone name is synonymous with exploration and settling that many turns of phrase name the Brightstones specifically as a shorthand for the process. The lead Brightstone alive currently is Josiah Brighstone, an elder dwarf with a natural sense of geography and a strong hand with a pick and chisel; he has dedicated his later years to finding new Brightstones and leaving the bulk of the work itself to the younger Brightstones, a task which is generally meeting with some success.
While the Brightstones reach back before recorded history, the first Brightstone known to have embraced what would become his calling was a confident young man named Buehner Brightstone. As a boy, Buehner was an average member of the dwarven tribe that lived on the Raolo and Haenok Plains--he was considered by most to be unremarkable and was thought to be unlikely to make many connections in life. But in his adolescence, the tribe needed to escape massive flooding from the Decax River, which bisected their homeland, and Buehner leapt into action, guiding them away to safety at the base of the Kallett Mountains. Without pausing, he began constructing new makeshift buildings to house the tribe and taught others to help him. The realization of Buehner's gifts seemed to many a divinely inspired miracle, and Buehner was quickly elevated to heroic status. Soon, the tribe was semi-nomadic, using Buehner's navigational skills to keep them going in the right direction. As Buehner aged, it was decided that he was too valuable to lose when he died, and Buehner eventually found and trained a new expert with their own natural abilities. The other dwarves called the successor Brightstone too, and the lineage of Brightstones began. As time wore on and the dwarves eventually made their way into Underhar, Buehner's original skills became highly valued in dwarven society, and the continued maintenance and expansion of Underhar today is only possible because of experts like the Brightstones.
Public perception varies wildly for the Brightstones. Many say that they are heroes whose special inborn abilities and training elevate them above the common person--truly, without them, would the dwarves have a home in their homeland? Others are more fanatical, believing the Brightstones to be divine themselves in some way. Still others say that the Brightstones are myth, that dwarves always had the gifts of mining and exploring, and that the Brightstones are con men who prey on people's love of tradition. Others dedicate substantial attention to trying to become a Brightstone or train their child to become one. Factually, the Brightstones really do have natural gifts for their skills, and their training methods are some of the best anyone will be able to find; also factually, some of the Brightstone legend has been exaggerated over time, and it's closer to the truth to say Brightstones were just exceptionally talented at things the dwarves always cherished. It is the dwarven taste to prefer a satisfying story over a factual one, and that helps to further the fact that no one in contemporary dwarven society really knows accurately what to think. Outside of dwarven society, people tend to be skeptical. Navigators and explorers are thought of as basic jobs that have similar status as farming or lumbering, so the Brightstones don't seem very special in that regard. Miners and builders are pretty much the same. Without the legend of Underhar's creation of Buehner's protection from the flood, non-dwarves don't have much of a reason to think much about the Brightstones. But at the end of the day, despite their complicated legacy, their small size, their odd manner of adding new members, and the other facts that muddle the Brightstones, nearly every dwarf holds the Brightstone name as vital to history and the present and even the dwarven capital and homeland itself.
The Ironlode Clan
Most prestigious dwarven clans are deeply rooted in Underhar, but the Ironlode Clan exists outside the capital city. As far north as Ringsdale and New Dalton and as far west as the halfling forests, there are settlements with important people from the Ironlodes, often in positions of community leadership. While dwarven society prizes family identity within a collective whole, the Ironlodes have instead valued individual identity within a community. This has put the Ironlodes at odds with Underhar's elite, prompting their move outside the city many years ago. The Ironlodes are something of a dissident clan that accepts all who wish to embrace a more forward-looking and loving life. Their reputation for this has led to many rebellious young dwarves threatening their parents that they will run off and join the Ironlodes (often an idle threat). The Ironlodes allow non-Ironlodes into their small settlements, but most of the places you can find Ironlode dwarves, those places are mostly home to Ironlodes. This is in part because living alongside them tends to bring people into the fold. The core beliefs of the Ironlodes revolve around making and keeping peace, treating everyone with respect, and being industrious, values that can be found across many cultures in Evanoch (though notably not in dwarven culture). The Ironlodes, who have no official leadership, have established a handful of small villages, but a few that have expanded to notable size are Virton, Brignon, and Fygg, led by Fiona Whitehammer, Norris Sledgeback, and Vincent Marblefist. These are cities that everyone in the southeast of Evanoch is familiar with, and in general, the Ironlodes have made them good places to live.
The Ironlodes have existed in various forms over the years. In its earliest incarnation, what would become the Ironlodes was something of a support group for dwarves with alternative lifestyles, which encompassed all manner of social difference from profession, faith, social status, gender and sex identities, and any other number of traits that might make a dwarf seem diminished in the eyes of the dwarven masses. Over time, the role of the support group grew from emotional support to a financial program meant to help dissident dwarves move to the developing Ironlode settlements. It was during this period that the Ironlodes became an official group, and it did so under the leadership of Felice Forestwalk, a progressive apothecary from a poor family who was married to likewise outcast dwarven woman Gerta Trunkrattler. Forestwalk often assumed the appearance of a male dwarf and went by Davis Ironlode in order to assume power in some situations she didn't have as a dwarven woman. In honor of Forestwalk's subversion of dwarven power, they dubbed their effort to help dissident dwarves the "Ironlode Clan," a group anyone who was different could belong to. This is very much the character of the Ironlode-heavy settlements around Underhar--Underhar houses the traditionalist dwarves, and the world beyond is where the more progressive go; the area just outside Underhar is as far as some dwarves need to look to find an accepting and supportive place to live. Many Ironlodes today repeat a question in times of doubt: "What would Felice do?", a way of reminding themselves of the values that Felice Forestwalk lived and died by--she was among the first defenders during an attack on the settlement that became Virton from ultraconservative dwarves from Underhar. Life for Ironlodes is safer nowadays, as there are enough of them in enough places to be able to defend themselves, and most of Underhar's elite are fine with hating the Ironlodes from a distance rather than combatting them directly.
Perception of the Ironlodes is perhaps the most polarized of all clans among the dwarves. Those who do not think of themselves as belonging to the Ironlodes detest them. The Ironlodes are, to many traditionalist dwarves, a perversion of everything that is good about dwarven society. The individual, the family, and society at large are all turned upside down by Ironlodes, and it's considered to be a deliberate and knowing choice to embrace something foul. Those who see themselves in the Ironlodes see the clan as a rare voice of reason in dwarven society, as more enlightened versions of their Underhar counterparts, as people who do not bring judgment to every interaction. Outside of dwarven society, Evanines generally regard Ironlodes as friendly, helpful, and reasonable. The Ironlode cities outside of Underhar tend to be peaceful, full of opportunities, and devoid of racism and other prejudice. This has historically meant in the more modern eras that most Evanines encounter Ironlodes before they encounter more traditional dwarves, and the more progressive societies of Evanoch look on the Ironlodes as excellent neighbors and fair negotiators. This perception tends to change when arriving in Underhar proper, where non-dwarven Evanines come up against prejudices they associate with the severity of the Daltoners. In contemporary generations, Ironlode dwarves have started warning non-dwarven Evanines on their way to the dwarven capital that Ironlodes are more assimilated than their cousins in Underhar, a note which seems curious to most travelers until they arrive in Underhar.
The Cliffscaler Family
In dwarven culture, a great deal of emphasis in academic study is placed on the field of history. More than any other culture in Evanoch, dwarves care about history, and specifically, their history. At the family level, genealogical research is common to study one's ancestors; at the societal level, history is one of the most commonly studied topics in all of academia. Tradition's importance in dwarven society infects this too, and learning tradition from historical research and reading is an expectation of all dwarves. It is especially prestigious, then, to be the keeper of historical records among the dwarves, and the Cliffscaler Family has had a hand in preservation and research of history for a handful of generations. Patriarch of the current Cliffscalers is Randolph Cliffscaler, a middle-aged man with three degrees in different specializations of history (ancient, modern, and governmental). Cliffscaler, upon graduation from Underhar's Fireaxe University of Dwarven Arts and Sciences, was offered a lucrative and respected job as professor at the University--Cliffscaler turned the job down to apply instead for work at the Underhar Document and Artifact Studies Center to follow his family line's business. Years later, he is now head of the Center as his father and grandfather before them had been. Cliffscaler is no passive academic--he has an agenda which he pursues with the writing and publication of historical research that emphasizes existing tradition and criticizes any critique of the powers that be; these, Cliffscaler says, would undermine the dwarven way of life entirely. Cliffscaler is favored by the current Dronith Craghammer for the work done in supporting and elevating the regency, and increased funding has come to the Underhar Document and Artifact Studies Center since Cliffscaler's tenure.
Before Richardson Cliffscaler, the Cliffscaler family had been merchants, and Cliffscaler general stores and especially traveling merchants were common in dwarven lands. But Richardson, who grew up hating his time spent marching around to sell common goods to stranger, saved and occasionally stole to save enough money to gain admittance to Underhar's Fireaxe University of Dwarven Arts and Sciences. He enrolled to study history because he had always loved the stories his father read from the one book they owned, a primer on early dwarven history. He excelled in his studies and pursued a career in history and archives, his loves during his time in school. He ended up clerking at the Underhar Document and Artifact Studies Center for a few years before receiving a few promotions and ending up as a Chronicler, a title reserved for those trusted to write new histories as they were discovered. Cliffscaler married and had two sons, both of whom studied history at University, and both of whom clerked with the Center before having strong careers there. Cliffscaler made his sons promise to keep the family business alive, and Cliffscalers ever since have enjoyed positions of cultural power after their educations, which already placed them in privileged positions in society. While the clans in this list have been successful in some concrete way, whether that be excelling at a trade or embracing a community of likeminded people, but the Cliffscalers have a different, less tangible form of power. The men of the Cliffscaler family got the gift of education and then the power to shape how people think. And in the aggregate, the Cliffscalers have used their knowledge and power to preserve the traditional dwarven way of life. It would be impossible for an Evanine to estimate the extent that Cliffscalers have impacted public opinion, but any except the most foolish would claim it to be less than considerable.
Most dwarves consider the Cliffscalers a true dwarven success story. Richardson Cliffscaler went from a trade dwarves couldn't care about any less than they do, used his own willpower to create an opportunity, and mastered a dwarven tradition in order to preserve tradition. His children followed his example, and today, the clan still honors its roots. For traditionalist dwarves, the Cliffscalers may not be smiths or clerics or soldiers, but they still bring honor to dwarven society by reminding dwarves of what matters. Dissident dwarves like the Ironlodes tend to dismiss the Cliffscalers as propaganda machines who can't be trusted. The many dwarves somewhere in the middle just think of Cliffscaler work as another simple part of dwarven life. Non-dwarven Evanines tend to be shocked that the Cliffscalers' positions include the powers that they do--for most societies, academics read and create research that only specialists read, and full press releases to be distributed to the public are inconceivable. This is another element of how outsiders to dwarven society learn about dwarves in parts; dwarves outside of Underhar tend to be fairly divorced from the hard-held beliefs of Underhar, so when people meet those dwarves, the impression formed will be radically altered when arriving in Underhar and reading what seems to them propaganda being circulated in the streets. But then, for outsiders, the Cliffscalers' exact role is never quite clear. Other societies lack what amounts to a propaganda minister, so they struggle to identify what the Cliffscalers and other "academics" are actually up to. Only dissident dwarves truly grasp what the Cliffscalers are, and they don't make an effort to spread their understanding around.
There you have it--a guide to five important clans among the dwarves in my homebrew setting. One big thing that I learned about my dwarves while writing this is that the dwarves are the society in Evanoch that is most similar to the contemporary United States. We have messed up forms of government, cultural divides between traditionalists and progressives, legends bigger than our facts, and a pretty patriarchal society. I always used to struggle in distinguishing between my Daltoners and dwarves--both are conservative, patriarch, and traditional with a distinct departure from the softer morality that I as a person hold. This guide helped me draw the line. Dwarves are my world as they are--broken in many ways that I've reflected in them, minus some of the current craziness--and Daltoners are kind of a dystopian nightmare people who feel almost cartoonishly bad, like the imperial colonialism that tore apart Africa. And now when I play my dwarves, I can make them more than just that Tolkien race that no one spices up or changes. They're the people wearied by the same cultural forces I am, and I can add that weariness and caution and unease about the world to my playing of dwarf NPCs. I'm looking forward to learning something else interesting in the next in this series: the orcs.
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