Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk
Go back to the source: the dvergr of Svartalfheim in Norse mythology. They live underground, and they're good with tools. That's all these dwarfs have in common with D&D dwarves.
Dvergr are intensely magical - they created Thor's hammer Mjölnir, Odin's spear Gungnir, Freyr's ship Skíðblaðnir, and many other artifacts of immense magical power.
Four dvergr have lent their names to the cardinal directions of the compass: Austri, Vestri, Norðri, and Suðri (“East,” “West,” “North,” and “South”) hold the sky off the ground. This is an example of both their strength and their height - dvergr are not short.
Their skin is pitch black. They might or might not have beards. And their accent is Norse, not Scottish.
More at https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/dwarves/ , from which I cribbed most of the above. |
My dragon heresy game features dwarves that are mostly derived from this. They have skin that looks like granite (it's still skin, though), they're hairless, and they're actually the source of the dominant human culture in Torengar, which is sort of the "Town" of a DFRPG style campaign if "Town" were a whole realm.