Dwarf
NEW
Dwarven history: They climbed out of the stone into a world with a sky. They found new species, here - the humans, elves, and orcs. These species already had settlements in these places, though the world had changed around them. These other settlements had kings or developed them shortly after, and the dwarves chafed at this. They didn't speak about the time below, but it was understood among them that they wouldn't be subjects again. So the dwarves continued to explore. The ground remained a source of trauma and unease, and eventually, the dwarves took to exploring the sky, first in balloons. They built homes in the floating rocks, and eventually found bergs large enough to house settlements and mushroom farms. they lived in extended families (clans) and existed in a monarch-less feudalism. As they explored, and grew, they began moving into larger thaigs, which mirrors the urbanization of our world. Around 300-400, wealth and power had concentrated enough that certain powerful families began extensive warring between each other. in 500, the aquilan accords were signed and that brought about the Company as a replacement to the Family. In those pre-accord times, and particularly before the founding of certain thaigs, families lived on their own thaigs. some families *developed* by living and intermarrying on those thaigs. and the first families were formed by the groups of dwarves who had amassed some kind of substantial wealth in the orcish, elven, or human settlements to stake big claims. Many dwarves carry stones from their original thaigs, passed down through generation. Family Gemstones make for fine jewelry. chunks of rocks are foyer decorations. Some of those original settlement bergs are abandoned on the ground. idk what else you would do to them?
Need focus
clan/company divide.
the prison stuff. How do the positions of the commission get passed on? what's the structure of representation and constituancy? the form/creation was probably related to families (districts isn't right, because that will grow and change), and there's a symbolic destruction of value in the way that family seats have gone to corporations. populations > histories > timeline of everything (aim for 700ish) * Need a history of dwarven families. How many were there? was there a set number like 12? it would be based on the thaig at the time the thaig... took off? what is the origin of the thaigs? i like the idea that one thaig broke off of another or something like that. that's good history. What do dwarven thaigs do with their dead? either open flame cremation. Plank burials probably. dropped from a higher distance is better.
The dwarven term for the ordered dwarven civilization is "The Scalatore (means climber). thematically this is good as it implies the climbing ambitions of capitalism, but also it serves the hidden history vibe of climbing out of the underdark and going skyward.maybe prison is in the tower beneath casadoro. low access for air ships. protected by the capital city above. that's their supermax. still need temporary jails elsewhere, or prisoner TRANSPORT to casadoro in which case they're vulnerable to breaking out.
lightweight metal for ship construction.
aether - buoyancy (maybe can be used to power things? or fuel guns?)
gold - this could be a weightless strong material that melts upward (that makes it cool and also a good form of armor which would give it value in ship construction). gold shouldn't be currency.
silver - currency
coal? - energy (steam, etc)
<> - some flexible material for 'baloon' construction
(baloons need to be constructed of TOUGH metal that is entirely flexible like a membrane or else ships could easily punture a baloon and immediately sink a ship. ideas: maginesium (burns!) (i like the pun of magic-nesium, but hate the way magi-nesium sounds. meganesium ain't bad.667 inventor of the first balloon ? (Justina Marino) F
649 inventor of the harpoon gun (Tomasso Bianci) M
648 first person to set foot on a berg (Sienna Taiga) F
647 discovery of aether (Antonella Fritsi) F
608 the founder of Aquila (Raphael Brunari) M
591 San Salvo (Enzo Mancini) M
584 Captain of the first rubber-metal aether-baloon airship. (Giuseppe Vasari) M
580 Casadoro (Filomena Romano) F
570 inventor of the pizza (Michaelangelo Garibaldi) M
556 the john hancock of The Code (Ludovico Mazzeli) M
479 old porto ribelle (Giada Sorvino) F
420 nasarro (Donato Marino) M
99 someone involved in the creafting of The Accords. ending of The Old Way 100 years ago (Arianna Russo) F
-35 Dominic Romano Guyver that anchored Casadoro 35 years ago
Dwarven history: They climbed out of the stone into a world with a sky. They found new species, here - the humans, elves, and orcs. These species already had settlements in these places, though the world had changed around them. These other settlements had kings or developed them shortly after, and the dwarves chafed at this. They didn't speak about the time below, but it was understood among them that they wouldn't be subjects again. So the dwarves continued to explore. The ground remained a source of trauma and unease, and eventually, the dwarves took to exploring the sky, first in balloons. They built homes in the floating rocks, and eventually found bergs large enough to house settlements and mushroom farms. they lived in extended families (clans) and existed in a monarch-less feudalism. As they explored, and grew, they began moving into larger thaigs, which mirrors the urbanization of our world. Around 300-400, wealth and power had concentrated enough that certain powerful families began extensive warring between each other. in 500, the aquilan accords were signed and that brought about the Company as a replacement to the Family. In those pre-accord times, and particularly before the founding of certain thaigs, families lived on their own thaigs. some families *developed* by living and intermarrying on those thaigs. and the first families were formed by the groups of dwarves who had amassed some kind of substantial wealth in the orcish, elven, or human settlements to stake big claims. Many dwarves carry stones from their original thaigs, passed down through generation. Family Gemstones make for fine jewelry. chunks of rocks are foyer decorations. Some of those original settlement bergs are abandoned on the ground. idk what else you would do to them?
Need focus
clan/company divide.
the prison stuff. How do the positions of the commission get passed on? what's the structure of representation and constituancy? the form/creation was probably related to families (districts isn't right, because that will grow and change), and there's a symbolic destruction of value in the way that family seats have gone to corporations. populations > histories > timeline of everything (aim for 700ish) * Need a history of dwarven families. How many were there? was there a set number like 12? it would be based on the thaig at the time the thaig... took off? what is the origin of the thaigs? i like the idea that one thaig broke off of another or something like that. that's good history. What do dwarven thaigs do with their dead? either open flame cremation. Plank burials probably. dropped from a higher distance is better.
The dwarven term for the ordered dwarven civilization is "The Scalatore (means climber). thematically this is good as it implies the climbing ambitions of capitalism, but also it serves the hidden history vibe of climbing out of the underdark and going skyward.
Thaigs
(also on Scalatore page) Thaigs are floating landmasses upon which industrial Dwarf settlements are built. Thaigs are kept aloft by stores of Aether kept in tanks within the rock. These tanks have expanding balloons that allow them to compress/expand the aether to offset growing weight of the thaig or to raise/lower it at times. As the thaigs drift, they follow currents that take them closer/further from other settlements, thus affecting their trade. "Commissions" (councils of old/influential dwarves) manage aether reserves/buoyancy, and the points at which the thaig can switch currents.Agriculture
general dwarfery: vine produce. that means grapes. which means wine is a major cultural thing.Clans vs Company
answerPrison/crime system
dwarven prisons: should it be suspended in the air? that would invite pirates to raid/rescue. so it needs to be hard to reach by ship. maybe on the surface? that's scary. idk. maybe it's protected by trees - stuck on a mountain somewhere. cells carved a few feet into the ground. enough that long-term convicts start to hear the fomori.Mining
Aether exists in two forms: Solid and gas. The solid form appears like the surface of oil in the sun - bluish with colorful swirls like sparkling galaxies within. This solid form occurs in veins found in bergs from the Thermomare. When Aether is struck (and thus compacted) it shatters and sublimates into gas. This gas forms a glittery cloud of similar colors which is lighter than air. These clouds occasionally collect among the cloud layers (should be 3 or higher. maybe it's rare to find them in 3. but more common above). Aether (air + metal?) Slagnesium (earth + metal?) (fire + metal?) Rubbermetal (water + metal) (could be the skin of shipballoons. or i could have a cool liquid metal that operates as fuel) gunpowder? coal? (fire + metal?) (fuel for engines).gold - this could be a weightless strong material that melts upward (that makes it cool and also a good form of armor which would give it value in ship construction). gold shouldn't be currency.
silver - currency
coal? - energy (steam, etc)
<> - some flexible material for 'baloon' construction
(baloons need to be constructed of TOUGH metal that is entirely flexible like a membrane or else ships could easily punture a baloon and immediately sink a ship. ideas: maginesium (burns!) (i like the pun of magic-nesium, but hate the way magi-nesium sounds. meganesium ain't bad.
Roles in Dwarven Society
Navigators predict and read aircurrents (mostly outside of the second layer). Sometimes a captain wants to raise a ship to enter faster/riskier currents. Guyvers are on-ship inventors and mechanics <aether chemists> speculate on the materials in a bergPirate / Company Divide
The Pirate code is "the family comes first." Crews range from the mob, to firefly, to the straw hats, to typical raiders. Show a more pure and true sense of family. Follow varying codes of honor. The Company code is lengthy legalese, full of loopholes. has provisions for resitution for various misdeeds. there are 'company families' (like the Allens) like 'naval families.' Chewed up and spit out unlike the clans before. REgularly choose wealth over honor. the code even promotes this. Companies maintain some imaginary disctinction between themeslves and pirates. even salvage companies. (move to scalatore code) Dying on the job used to confer certain benefits to the family (actually part of the code). now its the kind of thing rarely enforced because company lawyers argue/lobby against it. Also add that its unacceptable for any non-dwarf to learn the mechanics of dwarf ships.The Scalatore Code
The Scalatore Code governs society and is essentially their Constitution. Its most salient sections govern the administration and pay of ship crews, which over time have become 'companies.' with recent changes establishing an upper ownership class that doesn't actually contribute to the ship's missions or operation.Ancient History
Dwarves have lived in the skies for X00 years and have zero history of where they lived before. There was a purge of pre-aviary history and Dwarves feel a deep-seated fear about their distant history (like a genetically-inherited trauma) and also the underground. The Dwarves originally existed in the Underdark, where they served the Fomorians (twisted, evil giants). The Fomorians crated the dwarves. The Dwarves were capable of brilliant inventions and crafted many of the magic items that exist today (most likely. alternatively we could have them coming from Thule).The Conjunction
Dwarves tunneled upward and escaped the underdark in a revolution that was only possible once the planes had conjoined (or knowledge of this change reached the dwarves). From that point they fled to the skies. Since then, they have an ancestralfear (like genetic memory nonsense) of the underdark - stories of dwarves that visit the underdark never returnning. What *really* happens is that most dwarves in the underdark are overcome with psychic calls from the Fomorians that lure them downward.Recent History
Recently (decade-ish) changes were made to the The Scalatore Code, called the Boss Articles which allowed for bosses (non-flying crew) to receive shares of a company's profits. Legislation put into place that allows older powerful politicians and richfolk to gain more money off the backs of the younger generations' work. This has caused friction. This has greatly increased the influence of the companies, and has come at the expense of focus on clans/families/familia/dynasties. This has also contributed to the resentment of the old money, which has formed an underground anonymous extremist group <DDD> (probably existed because these bosses served on the commissions that control the legislature. realized that they could simply create laws that allow themselves to profit off someone else's work).National heroes.
distribute. "luca" _Ferraro (artisan) ... oh shit, how did they first get into the sky? hot air baloons using slag.Mechanics
Related Pages
The Scalatore Ethnicities & CulturesMeta
Architecture: industrial metals (lots of gold) built over roman stonecraft.food and culture:italian.
names:italian.
general inspiration:steampunk dwarves, wink.
themes: capitalism's tendency to eat anything and everything from resources to culture and traditions.
new money vs old money.
tropes leaned on:mining. gold. crafting/invention.
tropes inverted:underground.
Related Organizations
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