Dwarf Domain

[DocBeard]

Hey! One thing I noticed is that, while the Elves have Sithicus, the other demihuman races don't really have a "homeland" Domain of their own. Which is fine when most of the PCs are outlanders, but I think it'd be nice to have more than one choice for a native domain if you're a native demihuman.

So, here's my first semi-finished piece. I'd be very interested in comments or criticism; also, if this is the wrong place to put stuff like this, please let me know, and I'll be glad to move the post. It just didn't really seem like fanfiction or a community project.

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Name: Nauejhru
Location: Could be an island, but that always feels like a cop out. Alternativly, I think it'd fit well in the Frozen Reaches, or in the northwestern Core, probably north of the Lamordian coast.

Cultural Level: 8.

Landscape: Nauejhru is a rough land, dominated by the massive Mount Throne, surrounded by the Giant's Steps hills, a badlands full of mineral resources, bandit clans, and humanoids, and finally cumulating in three rivers basin, a massive freshwater lake that forms the edge of the domain, with Basinback built at the edge, allowing it to ship goods through the rivers, lake, and into the Sea of Sorrows/Mistway to Darkon. Strangely enough, ancient Dwarf Vaults can be found throughout the domain, hidden underground, in hill carins, taken over by goblins or trolls, and otherwise offering a massive amount of oppertunity for the past-hungry Dwarves.

Mount Throne itself is almost like a series of hills compressed into the area one mountain would take up, eventually giving way to a single spire. The dwarves aren't sure how deep the mountain goes, and they haven't really found a stopping point yet, though obviously newer mines have a good chance of being haunted, full of unpleasent monsters, or otherwise occupied. Throneholt is the center of civilization here, with lesser holds securing particularly valuable mines or passages up to the city itself; perhaps the most famous local resident is Professor Lutra Brassfist, (Female Dwarf, Ranger/Crypt Delver, Chaotic Good), a somewhat eccentric explorer and archeologist who has discovered more bits of ancient lore about the mountain and the ruins within it than any other dwarf...and, perhaps more importantly to the people of Throneholt, her expertiese has been used several times to save entier crews of explorers and stoneworkers from terrible fates at the hands of the elements, or more aware threats to the dwarves of Mount Throne. It is rumored that a mysterious conspiracy, alternativly calling themselves the "Delvers" or the "Drugear", who seek power over the throne and secret mysteries of the monsters beneath the mountain, though the Allthane virluently denies their existance.

The Giant's Steps are a group of hills and steppies that are carved through by the three sisters, large rivers that serve as the primary "roads" of the domain. Crafters send their wares down the river to the Threefold Basin, where workers pick them up to be sold out of Basinback. The Steps themselves are largely lawless land, with the exception of Fort Respite, built on the fork of two of the rivers, a fortress that helps protect the civilians coming down or up the rivers without being large enough to force the humanoid tribes, lawless criminals, and other unpleasentries from forming any kind of alliance in order to crush the new dwarf settlers. Still, family feuds and treasure hunting expaditions are often the order of the day, here. Thane Agi Bronzehammer (Male Dwarf Paladin Lawful Good) is the commander of Fort Respite, and refuses to take sides between the two factions of dwarves, believing that Respite only manages to help people by being the one real neutral place in the Domain, and even stating his own beliefs would bring internal conflict that the external threats would immediately take advantage of.

Threefold Basin is a large, rocky bowl that's filled with the product of the Three Sisters, becoming a lake the size of a small sea. Dwarves are not exactly known for their sailing skills, which is one of the major reasons that the small human population first came to Basinback, but the Muls maintain a small fleet, to defend the merchants, barge drivers, and others from pirates, humanoids, and the strange things rumored to fester under the lake. Gretta Halfaxe (Female Dwarf Rogue Neutral Good), the Captain of the Floating Coffin, is the most feared privateer in the Basin's waters, a mostly loyal retainer of the Basinback dwarves with a taste for an old fashioned treasure hunt, and a vicious hate of the pirates that haunt the basin. Foremost among them is Commendant Felix "Red Tooth" Grazdrau (Male Half-Vistani Barbarian Chaotic Evil), a ruthless maniac who combines a killing instinct with a gift for subterfuge and, some say, the terrible power that comes with being a descendant of Vlad Drakov himself. The two captains have faced eachother no less than five times, each battle ending in a near draw, with circumstance, or fate seeming to get in the way of a conclusion to their simmering rivalry.

Basinback itself is built into the southern end of the Basin, around a small stream that had chipped its way out of the Basin and into the Mists. This has since been expanded into the Threefold River, central water supply, shipping lane, and minor mistway for Basinback. The economics of the colony are superficially simple; the Dwarves of Throneholt mine for precious materials, gems and minerals, some of which they shape there, but most of which they ship raw down the Three Sisters to the Basin, where it's imported to Basinback for export out of the Domain, or construction into finished goods. The Darkonian Viceroy, a position similar to Baron but representing a colonial power instead of part of the Darkonian mainland, is empowered to appoint a chief constable, but must report the town's profits to the Bursar, an agent of Azalin Rex by the name of Varian Quickchill (Male Halfling, Wizard, Lawful Evil), a stern taxman who nevertheless enjoys a reputation for being obsessivly fair in his dealings. It's said that he even penalized himself with a week in the stockade for making a minor mathematical error on his own tax forms.

Major Settlements: Throneholt(Population 700), Basinback (Population 1,400) , Fort Respite (Population 140)

The Folk: 2, 700 Population: 95% dwarf, 4%human, 1%other, Language: Darkonese, Dwarven, Lamordian, Religions: The Eternal Order, The Ancestral Order(Split from the Eternal Order, Lawful Neutral, Difference: The dwarves believe that ancestors can and should be appeased in order to be kept in the afterlife, Death, Law, Earth, Knowledge, Repose, favored weapon: warhammer) The specifics of the varied dwarves of the region are explained in detail in the Law section. While I normally increase Ravenloft populations, I thought it best to keep the population at the 3E standard and let individual DMs increase or decrease as they choose. The Ancestral Order is a Dwarven faction of the Eternal Order that's base alignment is Lawful Neutral. The dogma is similar, with a somewhat more positive outlook about life after death: dwarves who are properly venerated by their descendents are content in the afterlife, while "rebellious" Ancestors arise because their legacy has been tainted, their descendents have forgotten their duty, or because of evil magic. Good or neutral Order priests may subsitute Earth for the Evil Domain, if they so choose; politically, the Ancestoral Order is recgonized as a faction, but ultimately considered part of the Eternal Order.

The Law: While one nation on paper, the clan and law of Nauejhu are split between two factions of dwarves, each of whom claim the right to lead the Ejhru clan. Currently, the only unilateral authority is Clanmother Ela Agatedottir (Female Dwarf Cleric Lawful Evil), granddaughter of the beloved healer and Ancestral communicator, Ejhru the Agate. While Ela is still young, no one contests her right to be the spirital leader of Nauejhru's dwarves, as she has shown herself to posess the wisdom and kindness that made her grandmother so beloved. Indeed, it's said that the only real peace in the troubled Domain comes when the Agatedottir is visiting a community; such is the pain of being seperated from her wisdom that those community's squabbles can sometimes reerupt, fiercer than before, once Ela is forced to move on to tend to another part of the flock.

The Derro are traditionalists who rigidly preserve the traditions of dwarfdom, or at least what traditions they are aware of or feel are "proper", as the dwarves of Ravenloft have a vested interest in finding the legendary lost history of their people. They believe in what they see as traditional dwarf values; hard work, dourness, thrift, honesty, and a healthy suspicion of anyone who is not a dwarf. Allthane Beork Brassfist(Male Dwarf, Fighter, Lawful Evil) has claimed rulership of the clan and the hold of Throneholt; Throneholt itself is the size of a small city, with several smaller holds carved out beneath it. Each hold is governed by a thane, who is the chief military officer and directly in service to the Allthane; the thanes are in turn served by karls, dwarves of age who have proven themselves in battle against the enemies of dwarfdom and earned a rough equivelent to a knighthood. Karls in direct service to the Allthane are called Holtkarls, and have the power to enforce the Allthane's will in all of Mount Throne's holds, instead of just the hold of their patron thane. Additional posts include the Foredwarf, a psuedoreligious position granted to leaders of various trusts; the Foredwarf of the miner's trust, for example, is not only in charge of regulating mining productivity, but in keeping the rebellious Ancestors and other horrors from impeding her workers, and the Archivist, a bookkeeping position in charge of keeping Throneholt's papers in case of Basinbacker treachery, along with organizing the priceless historical material the various dwarf archeologists and adventurers have found.

Outside of the mountain, the dwarves who insist on keeping the non-dwarf-exclusive culture they developed back in Darkon, along with persuing such dishonorable duties such as sailing, nontraditional art, gunpowder, keeping regular contact with the Core, going outside in the sunlight more than you absolutely have to, and other strict Derro traditions are called "Muls". "Mul" is a dwarvish term for "roguesome" or "untrustworthy", and while many citizens of Basinback are just hardworking dwarves who want to make a living without pretending not to know any humans or bowing at the feat of a self-proclaimed Thane, there's a signifigant amount of shady goings on in the city. While any port city will inevitably have some crime, Chief Constable "Old Ron" Halfaxe (Make Dwarf Fighter Lawful Neutral) and his tiny constablary do their best to ensure that, even if all the criminals cannot be purged from the city, at the very least they won't be running things any time soon. In contrast to stern Old Ron, Viceroy Palovan Coaleye(Male Dwarf, Sorcorer, Neutral Good), is almost universially respected among the Muls, which is a little odd, seeing as he's a former Derro and from a good enough family that he was Archivist of Throneholt just a few short years ago! While the specifics are rarely mentioned, something happened that caused Coaleye to banish himself from Throneholt, denying the Allthane's right to control anything, including his own bladder. When the old Viceroy committed suicide (by which we mean drove an unprotected ship into pirate territory), Palovan was shocked to find himself elected to the position. He does the best he can to lead his rowdy charges, always careful to try and defend them from the ambitions of the Derro while keeping things loose enough that the Muls won't turn into Derro with a tan.

Trade and Diplomacy: Resources: Fungus, potatoes, sheep, goats, dairy, spirits, beer, timber, minerals, jewels, marble, Coin: Insigne(pp), Cranium(gp), Ossis(sp), Assula(cp)

Darkon: The motherland. Both factions pay lip service to the Iron Crown, but the Derro conspire to declair Nauejhru an indipendent dwarf homeland, while the Muls are ultimately most loyal to their bottom line. As long as the colony remains profitable, Azalin could honestly not care less about what the dwarves do with their slice of rock; this could change, however, if open rebellion or hostilities between factions began, or some rare bit of lore was discovered.

Lamordia: Nauejhru maintains good trading ties with Lamordia, along with extensive contacts among the dwarves of the Sleeping Beast. The Derro, however, are liking less and less stories of dwarf oppression, or just old fashioned bigotry on account of Lamordia's humans. What better way to assert dwarfdom's right to exist, the Allthane's advisors whisper, than to remind the petty little humans of Lamordia who the "inferior" race really is?

Sithicus: Despite being so very far away, Sithicus deserves a special mention on account of his leader, Azrael Dak. While most consider the angry little dwarf an incompetant embarrasment at best, and a sell out at worst, a few dwarves in both factions think that the plethora of conspiracies against the sole dwarf leader in the Core can only lead to trouble. Both the Muls and Derro scheme sending aid to the embattled tyrant of Sithicus, perhaps hidden under the cover of an adventuring party looking to do a little good in the world...

Darklord: Ela Agatedottir, Female Dwarf, Cleric , Lawful Evil. Ela was the granddaughter and protege of Grandmother Agate, a famous dwarf cleric and leader. When Agate fell ill, her last wish was to see her daughter, Ela's mother, one last time. Trekking across Darkon, Ela found her mother...at her job as den mother of a Mantra Bay cathouse specializing in catering to...select clintele. Though her mother welcomed her in, and expressed true sorrow and a desire to make amends when she heard that Agate was passing, Ela was pushed over the edge when she learned that her mother didn't even know she had a daughter, killing the woman. The Darkonian colony of Nauejhru was her reward, a realm that has iron clad family ties that are tearing it apart...

[Jester of the FoS]

Well, elves have typically had their own homeland in folk tales (Faerie/the Fair Lands) while dwarves have typically just been described as "living underground".
So while Sithicus work as a type of Fey woods , I find dwarves better served with neighborhoods and small communities rather than large lands.

In the human-centric world ov Ravenloft, a dwarf-land is as odd as an all-vampire land.

[steveflam]

Well, elves have typically had their own homeland in folk tales (Faerie/the Fair Lands) while dwarves have typically just been described as "living underground".
So while Sithicus work as a type of Fey woods , I find dwarves better served with neighborhoods and small communities rather than large lands.

In the human-centric world ov Ravenloft, a dwarf-land is as odd as an all-vampire land.

I presume that is why Dwarves are prominent in Darkon in the Mountains but don't have their own Domain.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

If they had a domain of their own, I'd picture it as being all underground. Humans wouldn't even notice it unless they encroached on it by mining, or if the dwarves came up to seize fresh greens and game.

[kourkenko]

i my memorie is exact, on the dead site of alanik ray, i'd find a dwarf domain ruled by a moradin's cleric. he killed is brother to steal an artefact of the god (his hammer).
The domain was rapidly made and not finished but a lot of good ideas was used (like a portal who take a dwarf / week on another world to bring him on the domain, his memorie was erased in the process).

[DocBeard]

Heh, idea's that bad, eh?

Well, in response to the one bit of repeating feedback: "Being underground all day" isn't a trait I see as being as central to Ravenloft's dwarves as it is to other D&D dwarves. What really struck me about Ravenloft's dwarves was their subtly expansionist nature; out of all of the core races, the dwarves are the only one who are mentioned as activly expanding their territory; colonies in Lamordia, down the Baloks, expeditions into Keening, and the long term repopulation of Arak project. That's why I had the domain be a colony, and had the dwarves being interested in rediscovering their heritage be a theme for the race.

While the Throneholt dwarves /do/ spend a lot of time underground, I also felt that putting the whole domain underground needlessly limited adventure possibilities. There's room for subterranian expeditions, ruin exploring and the like in the domain, sure, but you also have the whole cultural conflict between the traditionalists of Throneholt and the more modern drawves of Basinback. The Darklord would very much /like/ the Domain to be a traditional happy dwarf kingdom where the clans all have gruff but friendly rivalries, and everyone lives under the same mountain: so, naturally, her domain is chock full of conflict on almost every level of dwarf society.

That's my reasoning, at least. Your mileage may vary.

[ewancummins]

I don't think it's bad at all. Actually, I think it could be really fun. I like that you included trolls[ maybe they should also be vulnerable to daylight?]. More info on the Darklord would be useful. What is her curse? I always say ''It's the curse that makes the Darklord, not the special powers.''

[Dion of the Fraternity]

See "Huninfjord" in the "Worlds of Ravenloft" series of Midway Haven.

[Isabella]

I always thought of the Dwarven lack of homeland as kind of a curse for a race that put so much emphasis on tradition. But a underground domain could also be fun - and just like Sithacus, the dwarven homeland sucks so much it pains them to think of it, even though their loyalties are tied so deeply to it.

[DocBeard]

Well, like I said, what inspired me about Ravenloft dwarves was that, for once, here was a demihuman race that was activly expanding, working on making their lives better and carving out a home for their people. You hear stories all the time about how the elves/dwarves/ancient wise race is slowly in decline, or getting ready to sail away on white ships, and it's just so /novel/ to have a group of demihumans going, "Screw /that/, we'll make new ancient mountain holds!".

So that's what I centered the Domain around; the conflict between the dwarves who thought that being a dwarf ment living underground and mining, and the dwarves who think being a dwarf doesn't /have/ to involve that sort of thing. The two societies sort of need eachother, if only economically, causing the conflict to be one of those petty, nasty little things. Like the Hatfields and MacCoys, but with axes.

It's also a fairly rough land; you've got goblins, ogres, kobolds, in the hills, murlocks and trogdolites underground, and reavers, sea spawn, and plain ol'pirates in the water, all wanting their share of riches and blood. And /then/ you have the mysterious Dwarf vaults, all around the hill land, under the mountain, and maybe even under the lake; some are filled with priceless cultural artifacts, some serve as makeshift forts for n'er'do'wells, and some are filled with angry, undead Ancestors who want to have a violent word or three with whatever fools woke them up. All this ties into the question I asked myself; "What would dwarves use to scare eachother around campfires with? What really scares Joe and Jane Stronginthearm?"

Instability. The Domain is full of oppertunity, but there's no where to kick back, hang your axe up, and otherwise escape from the pressures of the outside world. To a race as fixated on family and home as the dwarves, this is a terrifing...and liberating...state of affairs; sure, you don't have to worry about goblins stealing you in the night in either of the big cities, just press gangs recruiting you to the Allthane or Viceroy's latest project. This also ties into Ela's curse.

She was raised by her grandmother; she assumed her birth mother gave her up and, like many children seperated from their parents, spent a great deal of time fantacising about what her mother must be like. Sometimes, she was a cold hearted villain who was barely stopped from slitting her own child's throat, sometimes, she was a warm souled princess who dramatically sacraficed her own happiness so that her daughter would have a chance at life! Then, it all happens very quickly; the first blow is the grandmother, who is both parent and mentor, admitting that she's dieing. Then, she admits she knows where Ela's mother has been, and presumably has for some time, and wants Ela to go and try to bring her back, so they can patch things up before the grandmother passes on.

Ela finds the woman, and finds that instead of the great hero, or great villain she had dreamed about, her mother was...normal. Sure, she had a seedy job, but ultimately Ela's mother wasn't a bad dwarf, just one that was afraid of being an abandoned single mother, and her daughter living a life of shame because of this. And after this reeling blow of damning mundanity, Ela's mother had the audacity to be /nice/ about it all. She was happy to see her, she said. She would certainly come home if Nana asked her too, she said. She really wished she had gotten the courage to visit Ela sooner, she said, but she was ashamed. The great conflict in Ela's life was an 'oopsie', a normal, everyday mistake that could be solved in a normal, everyday sort of way, the big question mark of her existance turns out to be not that big of a deal after all. Ela reacted like any abandoned child who found out that there wasn't much of a reason they had to /be/ an abandoned child might, and lashed out. The fact that her mother died wasn't Ela's fault, she was a fully grown dwarf! Obviously it was a sign, that the wicked, wonton, undwarflike ways of her mother had finally caught up to her.

And this portrait, of an unrepentant sinner who lived to defy the virtues that defined her mother's life, is what Ela painted for her grandmother. The old woman died in dispare, thinking that she had failed utterly as a parent to both Ela and her mother. The murder isn't the Darklord's sin so much as allowing her grandmother to die believing she was her failure, and her daughter wanted nothing to do with her: Ela's curse, then, is twofold.

First, on a broad scale, Ela's domain will never be whole, she'll never be able to see the strong, united dwarf society she so desperately clung to as a girl. Not only are they still a Darkonian colony, but both the Derro and the Mul factions have flaws that, to Ela, stand out as particularly undwarfish. On a more personal scale, Ela is forced to play diplomat between the factions; she'll never have the warm home environment she craved, the long line of ancestors to look back on in pride, because as the Clanmother she'll never be entierly accepted by either faction of dwarves, and therefore can't be at home anywhere in her own domain.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Hey Doc, I finally got around to reading this, and hey, guess what, it's not bad at all. I like the amount of thought you put into what a dwarven domain would entail, and why, rather than just making the DL act and seem like a short human.

I also like that you gave it ties to Darkon. That's one thing that often bugs me about new domains: they usually involve an outsider DL from a homebrew world. As a fan of native campaigns, I think there's great potential in native villains as well, and by grounding the domain in Ravenloft lore by making it a Darkonian colony, it feels Ravenlofty, even with the dwarves.

That said, I don't think I'd actually use it much, unless I had a Dwarf PC who needed a homeland. For that purpose, it would serve admirably. But for a human-centric party, they can live their lives perfectly happily not knowing it's there. (Which is nicely possible because you connected it to Darkon only through a mistway. nice touch.)

[DocBeard]

Oh, hey, you got a chance to take a look at it after all! Thank you, that's flattering.

I agree with you on the connection bit; every domain I make I try to have some sort of connection to the Core and the main campaign. You don't have to, but I have more fun that way.

I was thinking of adding it to the Frozen Reaches to make it a little less isolated, but yeah, I liked the idea of this colony that's got such an issue with being a colony when ultimately Azalin probably doesn't see it as that big of a deal. I think it'd be a fun place to adventure for any group looking for some northern-style daring do, a Darkonian campaign looking for a new place to go, or some good old fashioned dungeon crawling while exploring the mountain's secret carins.

My one complaint is that the name is kind of a mouthful. 'Nauejhru', what was I thinking...

[whalejudge]

Good job. Personally, I'd like the Darklord's background evil...expanded on. She was an unrepentant evil BEFORE she found her mother? That didn't really come through to me.

[A G Thing]

I like it Docbeard, for the reason that while they are isolated in the old dwarvish fashion there is still enough conflict both social and environmental that a dwarf might reasonably leave...

Darkon makes an excellent neighbor to the non human realm, and Lamordia while accepting in some respects can be condescending I imagine, and to a tradition oriented culture they would have some big differences when it came to comparing them.

Just a note on the fact that you could connect it to the Frozen Reaches as well through a mist way...

P.S. Have you thought of a path or what kinds of powers, land based or otherwise she would have as Darklord?

[The Giamarga]

In the human-centric world ov Ravenloft, a dwarf-land is as odd as an all-vampire land.

Well there is the lost vampire land domain of Vizahria from the Castle of the Undead book. (where the bloodknife originates from)