Naked Swords: Steel Dwarves

Biology: The Steel Dwarves are less of a race and more of a conglomeration of various races with dwarves at their core. They differ much from the baseline Iron Dwarves that were their ancestors. Centuries on the surface instead of underground and intermingling with non-dwarves has produced a faction of dwarf hybrids physically different than their stout namesake. For the most part, Steel Dwarves mix and match dwarven, human, elven, halfling, orc, and even gnome genes in their heritage, and only recently has their society solidified into an identifiable race, of sorts. The average Steel Dwarf is slightly taller and slimmer than their ancestors, though they are almost all still shorter than humans or elves. In the picture above, I tried to illustrate this as the male dwarf on the left is of nearly-pure dwarven ancestry, with only his family's time on the surface assisting in making him taller than the average dwarf. The female on the right is of mixed heritage, likely human or halfling, and so she is far narrower than the age-old traditional beauty of the dwarves – deliciously plump. As Steel Dwarves are a mixed bunch, one is likely to see a wide variety of shapes and sizes among their ranks, and finding a true average form among them can be difficult. Despite their distance from their ancestral figure, Steel Dwarves are no less hardy or tough. Their traditions of mining and labor have long-since been replaced by equally-burdening traditions of violence and conquest, and as such they are plenty durable and strong– sometimes even more so than their Iron relatives.

Etymology and Language: The phrase "steel dwarf" comes from a bunch of different interpretations from different speakers over the course of history. Non-dwarves identified them as "steel" due to their large influences from other cultures as they intermixed with numerous other races. This made them more like an alloy than pure iron. The Iron Dwarves turned this into an insult as though the Steel Dwarves were impure and diluted. The Steel Dwarves themselves, obviously went the high road and took on the name as symbolic for their ascension and "superiority" to the Iron Dwarves. Overall, Steel Dwarves still speak whatever common language everyone's been speaking in the story, but any ancient dwarven language they carry with them is probably mutated to be more Latin and Spanish in how they speak. Of course the Steel Dwarves get Spanish accents for whatever language they speak. Sexy, swarthy, coarse, or visceral, the Steel Dwarves work with any available flavor for their accents.

Ancient History: I'll try to be brief with this since I haven't thought too much about the fine details. As usual, this can all be retconned later if we need it to. The Steel Dwarves are directly tied in with the formation and legend of the Thorns of the World, a notorious mountain range in the center of the primary continent our stories have been set on. Their greatest city under the Thorns, the golden city of Andalus, was the capital of the great dwarven empire underground, with Ardaz as their emperor when the Thorns were crashed down upon their civilization. Only a few hundred dwarves survived the incident, led in their survival by Ardaz' general-turned-legendary-hero Cid. The survivors turned to violent migration and vagrancy following the incident, and spent a century or two rebuilding their numbers and causing a ruckus in the wasteland surrounding the Thorns. Their dickishness is cited as one of the reasons the Thorn Gnomes fled north to the Lilac Mountains around this time, as the dwarves mostly concentrated themselves in the southern parts of the continent. They kept migrating over the millennia, though, as they refused to ever give up Muse's challenge: Find a way to conquer the sun, and rule the realm of mortals. They became a feared people, and dealt with dark forces like vampires and conceptuals of evil to try and continue the challenge that nearly destroyed them all. By the time their population was back in the tens of thousands, and they had thouroughly interbred with elves, humans, and halflings in the southern plains, they had their first contact with the also-migrating orcs. They brutally beat back the orc hordes, and forces the orcs to migrate north instead, which ultimately led to the orcs settling in what is now M'Gyar and the surrounding grasslands. Before the orcs ever turned violent on northerners, the Steel Dwarves were the first people to ever invade north, launching an invasion, at the behest of Carpathian vampires, into Qelb, one of the most important trade zones between the rebuilt Iron Dwarves that avoided the Thorns and abandoned Muse's challenge, and the surface world. They were ultimately turned away by one of the first alliances between humans, elves, and dwarves ("good" dwarves in this case). After that, they abandoned trying to take back the Iron Dwarves and the remains of their empire, and migrated back south. Since then, no one has really heard of them, and they faded into legend. Only the Conceptuals and some Iron Dwarves are fully aware of what has happened to them since.

Recent History: A century or two ago, the Steel Dwarves moved past the Inland Sea and took over the ancient human port of Bralta. From there they pirated or constructed ships to carry them south, spurned on by the Conceptual of Knowledge, until they reached the Solar Scales, a dense archipelago of tropical islands between the main continent (we still haven't named the main continent, I'm sorry) and the southern landmass of Azkar, the home of the lizardfolk (I plan to detail them later on. They're fairly important to all this). They quickly began to colonize the islands and the larger jungle continent, renaming their dominion New Andalus, and sowing the seeds of their next sneaky attempt at completing Muse's challenge. There are 4 sun temples (Aztec-style pyramids) built by the lizardfolk as shrines to Muse and the light of the sun, which is sacred above all else to them. Should the Steel Dwarves claim all 4 of them, and complete some other rituals on the side, they'll be able to manipulate the light of the sun, and eclipse the light of Muse forever. Busy little guys aren't they? By the present day of our stories, the Steel Dwarves have successfully captured the northernmost sun temple, and they are even building a new temple in their great trading city of Salamander to test if they can expedite the ritual with their own magic instead of that of the lizardfolk. Some native tribes have joined them, while others remain against them.

Culture: Steel Dwarves are ruthless and warlike, though this is less because of inherent evil and more because of centuries failing to complete their challenge, and frustration with everything working against them all the time. They combine the hard work and artisan talents of their ancestors, as well as bits and pieces of culture from the other people they've assimilated. Their history with many different conceptuals trying to complete their challenge has turned them into rather spiritual people, and they get to pull the whole "Glory, God, and Gold" schtick the Spanish did during their own conquests in real life. Astonishingly, the Steel Dwarves worship Muse as their primary deity, and their own temples of the sun are their main religious centers. Instead of trying the rival-god method, they've been busy trying to follow Muse so they can study her power and try and destroy her from within, rather than without. This may or may not actually work, but the sun god has been calm enough about it to humor them. Despite being, you know, dwarves, the Steel Dwarves have become excellent sailors, and they've developed quite a maritime tradition throughout their ports. While they don't focus on the Inland Sea much anymore, and have abandoned Bralta long ago, they are the fiercest pirates in the Solar Scales, and are not to be trifled with. They're territorial, but not uncivilized, and will gladly meet with and assimilate newcomers into their ranks. Some traditions never go away, as Steel Dwarves still prefer axes and hammers over other weapon types, but they also feature many more swords, bows, and crossbows than their Iron Dwarf relatives. Despite their long military history, they really don't understand camouflage, as the drawing above indicates. They certainly strike fear in the hearts of the lizardfolk, though. They dabble in arcane magic more than the Iron Dwarves typically seem to, and this largely replaces firearms with regards to real-world Spanish conquistadors. Quite a few Steel Dwarves are vampires, having carried over the disease from their alliance with the nightwalkers in ancient times. I haven't decided if they handle vampirism in any special way, but they are tolerant of it, as long as it doesn't spread too far into the population.

Civilization: Salamander is their greatest city and capital of New Andalus. Some even say it is the "Andalus of the surface world". Despite not being as golden as the ancient city, Salamander is a lively and bustling hub on the northern coast of Azkar. There are a few other cities and settlements dotting the Solar Scales, but the further away they are from Salamander, the more lawless they become. The pirate capital of Bralta is technically no longer under the Steel Dwarf banner, but is the best example of the dwarves leaving outlaws and pirates behind as they keep moving towards their goal. Piracy is a big problem for the Steel Dwarves, but since they aren't hauling massive shiploads of doubloons all over creation, they suffer far less than real-world Spain did. Their uncreatively-named Armada is less of a national navy and more of a consortium of privateers tasked with exploring the unknown waters around New Andalus, and killing pirates who refuse to join them. Much of New Andalus is ruled by independent viceroys and pirate-lords, rather than a single emperor, but they all know the score, and all work together when Muse's challenge is brought up. The current leader of Salamander is Vicereine Corta Vivar, a descendant of Cid, and a powerful dwarven warrior. Steel Dwarves don't have many alliances, but possibly with native merfolk or another sea-faring race, and they definitely have some allies in the lizardfolk tribes. Most of the reptilians are still their enemies, however, and are still the biggest obstacle in taking over the sun temples (and the harsh environment of the jungles of Azkar). I haven't decided how their government functions, but I'm currently leaning towards aristocratic nobility with a hint of military meritocracy, capitalism, and democracy.

That's about all I can think of. Hopefully you guys like the idea, and I plan to revisit these guys a bit as we keep going forward. No idea if I'll actually write them, but they may become villains in the future. Again, very few people in the main continent know these guys are still around. It's not that they're very far away, it's that they really never talk to anyone up north anymore, and no one really has a reason to go looking for them. Ylmbodar is so far one of their only trading partners, and even that's a strained relationship with very little real information being exchanged between parties. I guess try not to bring them up in a matter-of-fact way in a story, unless it's from someone who would be aware of what they're up to, like a Conceptual or something.

Enjoy!