I have played Dungeons and Dragons
for more than 15 years. Lately, I have been
playing regularly as a DM, but even when I can just keep zooming out on the map
and slap down another one of my ideas, I still have things that I want to just
throw out onto the internet to see how other people can make use of it.
This is going to be a reoccurring
thing as I just keep hammering out things and not all of them can be turned
into elements in my “random fantasy novel ideas” folder.
What Have I Got: A New Dwarf Civilization
While I do
write about Dungeons and Dragons a lot on here, the last time I did a blog like
this one was all the way back in August with “
Religion
of Orcs” (though that one wasn’t in character), before that it was “
Wild
Elves”, and the first one was my take on “
Kobolds”.
Today I figured
I would introduce you all to my take on the main Dwarf Civilization in my world,
the Coal Dwarves.
 |
This image is from the 3rd edition monster manual.
Can you tell I don't have photoshop and can't make a convincing image of a crowd? |
Coal Dwarves: Mass Production
By Professor Farrowdel Malanar,
Vizier to the Marquis of the Southern Oasis
On the
continent of Lum, the mightiest and most economically flush of all the Dwarven
civilizations is that of the Coal Dwarves.
Having centuries ago mastered the art of standardized parts and mass
production after the inventor Ell the White created the first machine to mass
produce screws, nails, and springs.
The ability
to create parts that could be easily replaced (should they break) created a
civilization that fell away from the artistry that defines other Dwarven
nations and instead embracing a philosophy of uniformity, disposability, and
utility.
Gone were
the days of a Dwarf metalworker spending days to create the gold inlays on a
sword that was meant to last 1,000 years, replaced with 100 swords all of
uniform size and appearance, each to last a decade before being cast back into
the metalworks to be remolded. Gone was
the Dwarven armbands of infinitely complex patterns and runes, replaced with
jewelry that all glittered with the same images, the same runes, to be worn for
a fashionable period and then cast back into the works to be melted down and
recast.
The Coal
Dwarves have turned their keen minds from the age of fine artistry and instead
harnessed it toward industry, they have moved past wood and pitch furnaces to
harness the power of
coal and
steam, they create bellows that stoke the hottest fires in the mortal
realm. Creating metals harder than that
of any other kingdom.
And while
the great stacks extending up from their mountains work tirelessly (some human
communities believe that dwarves are the inventors of clouds now, for all the steam the
stacks release) there are downsides their people have encountered.
While they
produce more shovels, picks, hammers, hoes, axes, and all other manner of tools
faster than anyone else, they have little food.
They import everything, hundreds of tons of grains, meat, fruits, and
vegetables, all to feed a population that is (humorously described by gnomes
who have visited the urban core of the Coal Dwarves’ lands) packed shoulder to
shoulder at all times with dwarves who look so similar in identical dress with identical
equipment that they can’t be told apart from one another.
They also have
no wood, cotton, or leather, which requires another massive import
business. They can’t sleep on a pile of
shovel heads, and so they export metal products in such volume that to the
Dwarves these products are practically worthless, while the luxury of a goose
down pillow might be treasured for a decade as a product of relatively great
rarity.
Beyond the
constant need to ship in so much, a deeper concern has been noted by Elf allies. Elves, being the only group that lives long
enough to see first hand the sociological change occurring, believe that the
soul of the Dwarf people is dying in the Halls of Coal (The non-Dwarf name
for the capital of the Coal Dwarves).
Without the art and craftsmanship that used to serve as a creative
outlet for the Dwarven spirit, the Dwarf’s natural sense of clan and community
is overwhelming them. The Coal Dwarves
are moving away from a tightly bound group of individuals and instead becoming
a horde of uniform parts.
Where once the Dwarves would see
each member as a single person, an indispensable part of a community that saw
each member as having a unique view and skill set to contribute, now each dwarf
is like a nail. Useful, but just like
every other nail, replaceable.
Influences
Much like
how I took inspiration for my “Wild Elves” from the Sioux Indians of North
Central America, the inspiration I started with for the Coal Dwarves was modern
day
China and Slave Era Southern United States.
And I know how racist that might sound.
A
civilization known for mass producing disposable products with little artistry
or distinguishing features with a collectivist mindset that threatens to
override what was once a culture know thru out the world as the greatest
producer of fine manufactured goods.
That is not a glowing portrayal of modern China. Let me step back a bit.
China was
once the single most powerful economic force in the world. The term “
Kowtow” comes from the practice
of foreign nobles from all over the Indian Ocean sailing to China to offer up
lavish devotion and praise to the Emperor of China so that they might be granted
permission to trade for
China’s untouchably great products.
When European
powers started trading with China the demand for their goods was so high (and
the only thing they would trade for was Silver) the Western powers had to start
selling the Chinese addictive drugs just to offset the trade imbalance.
China is
kind of awesome at various points in history for lots of reasons, but I also
have to point out that Modern China has some REALLY BIG ISSUES related to being
the workhouse of the world. Pollution,
inhumane working conditions, and a lack of worker protections that would make
any communist scholar look on aghast at the whole process. Having these issues of people being
dehumanized and turned into replaceable parts, that is something worth
exploring in a fantasy setting, and commenting on how harmful it is.
The real
issue is the “They all look alike” thing which is racist when applied to
Chinese people, but that is kind of what drew in the inspiration and made it
come together in my mind. The “They all
look alike” concept in relation to the mass production is an interesting
metaphor. And while I do think this is
starting in an inherently racist place, that is kind of the point, you take the
characterization and you move it to a fantasy setting, divorcing it from the
harmful real-life implications to explore the concept of a civilization losing
itself to industry.
That is a
lot of talk about how modern China inspired these dwarves, but what about he
Slave Era Southern United States? Well, let
me start with the most obvious one (to me).
Ell the White is a reference to Eli Whitney, who invented the Cotton Gin
and revolutionized (mechanized) the production of cotton.
Previously, the South had several
bottlenecks on their ability to produce cotton.
The first was soil quality, growing cotton depletes soil at a fantastic
rate, requiring more and more land to be cleared and set up to grow the
plant. The second is picking the plant,
a labor-intensive activity that is hot and unpleasant. The third is picking out the seeds that are
in the cotton.
The acts of picking cotton and
picking out the seeds were all done by slaves, but the seed extraction was so
time intensive that it wasn’t all that economically viable. Some predicted slavery’s decline due to this,
and I recall my middle school history teacher explaining that Whitney was
hoping to deal slavery a death blow by replacing the slaves with cotton gins, a
machine that could remove the seeds just by cranking a handle.
Eli was an engineer, not an
economist. See, by making the most time
intensive part of the product and making it a breeze it allowed the South to
move slaves entirely into the picking stage of things. Making the desire for slaves (the least
expensive of all labor) to skyrocket.
Whitney’s grand answer to the textile industry’s reliance on slavery had
just made slavery 100 times worse.
Slaves are people, but they were seen
as disposable people. They were worked
or beaten to death and more were found.
The profit margins of slavery raising cotton were huge. People, reduced to their most basic of
functions were seen as
interchangeable
parts in the great machine of capitalism.
My intention
with this and all other explorations of things in a fantasy or science fiction
setting is not to caricature a place or people by taking inspiration from the
real world, but I sometimes worry that might happen. I mean, I don’t want to use the same line of
thinking they used in “
Bright”.
What do you
all think? Is this another instance of
me over thinking things and sucking some of the fun out? Is this something you might want to put in
your own worlds? Is this an interesting
break from all of the Tolkien type Dwarves that define Dungeons and Dragons (to
say nothing of fantasy as a genre)?
______________________________
If you like or hate this please take
the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click that link
to follow me), Tumblr,
or Facebook, and otherwise
distribute my opinion to the world. I would appreciate it.
Posts
